God's Wake-Up Calls

 God's Wake-Up Calls - Greg Laurie - www.harvest.org

 

Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word. -Psalm 119:67

 

Sometimes God will allow suffering and sickness in our lives to get our attention. We may be rebelling against Him, and He wants us to change our direction. He wants it to stop.

 

We see an example of this in the life of Jonah. God told Jonah to go preach to the Ninevites, but Jonah went in the opposite direction instead. He was disobeying the Lord. And because the Lord loved Jonah, He went after him. God will not let His children run too far. He got Jonah's attention, turned things around, and turned the prophet around.

 

As the psalmist said, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word." (Psalm 119:67). Sometimes God will allow a situation in our lives to wake us up to our real need.

 

Maybe you have had a wake-up call recently. Maybe you've received a call from a doctor who said, "I am concerned about these tests. I want you to come back in. I want to run some more."

 

Suddenly you're filled with panic. You're saying, "God, I love You. I'm going to follow You and serve You. I'm going to go to the mission field. I will do anything." Then you go in and they run the other set of tests. Everything looks good. You're okay. And suddenly you're back to your old ways again. What happened to all of those vows?

 

If you've had a wake-up call, then wake up.

 

Maybe God is allowing you to go through something that doesn't make any sense right now. But one day it will make sense.

 

The Devil can do nothing in the life of the believer without God's permission. The Lord is ultimately in control. He is in control of all circumstances that surround the life of the believer.

 

 

How God Can Use Suffering - Greg Laurie - www.harvest.org

 

He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. -2 Corinthians 1:4

 

My friend Lt. Col. (Ret.) Brian Birdwell was working at the Pentagon on 9/11 when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the building. He was severely burned and underwent numerous surgeries and painful skin grafts. Awhile back when he was a guest of our church, I invited him to have lunch with me.

 

"I can't," he said. "I'm going to a burn ward." He had arranged to visit patients at a local burn ward so he could encourage them and tell them they could get through it. I thought about how Brian Birdwell could do that like no one else could.

 

Or take Nick Vujicic, who was born without arms or legs. When he speaks of the comfort that Christ has given him, it resonates.

 

When a person has just found out he or she has cancer, a cancer survivor can bring a measure of comfort that I could never bring.

 

When we are suffering, we can bring a special measure of comfort to someone else who is suffering. Paul said that God "comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us" (2 Corinthians 1:4).

 

Everything in life is preparation for something else. That certainly was the case with Joseph and all the calamities he endured after his brothers sold him into slavery. Years later when his brothers begged for forgiveness, he told them, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people" (Genesis 50:20).

 

God can use suffering in our lives to prepare us for a special task. Perhaps the hardships of today are preparing you for great opportunities tomorrow. 

From Theory to Reality - Greg Laurie - www.harvest.org

 

"But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold." -Job 23:10

 

When you go through a hardship, it will make you better or bitter. I have found it is usually one or the other. And guess who decides that? You do. You are the one who decides whether you will be better by trusting in the Lord or whether you will be bitter by turning against the Lord.

 

Sometimes people who have experienced a tragedy in their lives will say, "I've lost my faith through this." That's good. Because their faith wasn't real to begin with. If you are a real believer, your faith will not go away when hardship hits. It will get stronger. The faith that cannot be tested is a faith that cannot be trusted. Tragedy reveals who the real believers are.

 

Suffering helps us grow spiritually and makes us stronger in the faith. It takes our faith from the realm of theory to reality. It reminds me of guys who drive around in their tricked-out four-wheelers. They have done everything to their vehicles, adding massive tires and wheels as well as all kinds of hardware. But ask one of them if he ever takes his vehicle off road, and he'll say, "Are you kidding? Do you know what I've spent on this thing? I'm going to the car wash." He would never consider taking his four-wheeler off road, even though that is what it was designed for.

 

In the same way, it's easy to talk about our faith. But it's another thing to live by it. A lot of us will boast about the number of years we have known the Lord and how many verses we have memorized. That is all good. But when your faith is tested, we will find out what you are really made of.

 

Suffering does not create character; it reveals it.

 

The Mysteries of God - Greg Laurie - www.harvest.org

 

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?" -Job 38:1-2

 

Whenever I post on my Facebook page about our son Christopher going to be with the Lord, I'm amazed at the number of responses I receive. Every time I talk about this, I'm reminded there is a massive community of people who are in pain around the world.

 

One person wrote me and said, "My son would have been sixteen years old this year. It has been fifteen years since his death, but he was the person who brought me to the Lord. Because of his death, I received my salvation. . . . I have found salvation through God's Son because of the loss of mine." I found that to be powerful.

 

Basically a horrific tragedy brought this person to Christ, but I am not saying that is the reason it happened. I think we make a big mistake when we connect dots like that. Do we think God could not reach a person without the death of another? Here is what I will say: This death happened. It is tragic. It is hard. But despite this tragedy, God worked and brought someone into His kingdom.

 

Let's not try to explain the mysteries of God. We don't know. I'm convinced that when I'm in Heaven, the things I thought were good in this life may be perceived as bad. Things that I perceived as bad in this life may be perceived as good.

 

We might say that good in this life is having everything go our way. But what if everything is going our way and we have no time for God? What if those bad things that happened in our lives brought us into a relationship with God? We would actually look at them and say they were good. Until that day, we simply need to trust God.