EIGHT THINGS TO DO WHEN THINGS ARE NOT WORKING OUT WELL Sylvester Onyemalechi Life is full of the unexpected. It is full of challenges and difficult times that upset our dreams, plans and pursuits. It can be discouraging when road blocks suddenly appear on our way to success. We usually prepare for anticipated challenges, but unanticipated challenges can be devastating and sometimes terminate dreams. Many wonder why God allow such things to happen especially when a lot of work and prayers have gone into preparation for success. Many have been shattered mentally, emotionally and physically that they never recovered from the adverse experience they had. Problems come at different times in a man s life. They come in various sizes and shapes. They seem not to stop coming the way of a man. The holy and godly also face challenges. That a man is very close to God does not mean he will not face some challenges in his life. Challenges are proofs that one is alive and has a bright future. The devil will not put up a great opposition if a man has nothing great to contribute to the society. The greater the assignment and contribution, the greater the opposition. No matter the challenge, you will still get to your destination. You will make it to the top. You cannot be stopped as long as you refuse to be stopped. Jesus told us that in the world, we will have many troubles; meaning that, as long as a man is alive in this world, challenges are bound to come his way. Only death keeps a man away from challenges. Even the Lord Jesus Christ Himself had His own share of many challenges. If He went through them, you will also, for a servant is not greater than his master. What we need is to learn how to manage ugly situations, face them and overcome. Many have destroyed their health through worrying and depressing thoughts because of challenges of life that stopped their dreams and made life difficult. Some have withdrawn from life, become psychiatric patients, drug addicts, drunkards, sick, and even taken their own lives because they couldn t handle challenges. The Bible is full of passages that reveal that we must all be tempted, tested, persecuted and face many troubles in various aspects of our lives. God revealed all these to prepare our minds to face and overcome challenges. He doesn t want us to be defeated by challenges so He told us in advance so we could prepare and face them with confidence and trust in God and in our potentials, and overcome. He wants us joyful while we walk through the valley. He wants us to be as happy in the valley as we were at the mountain top. We are not to loose our joy and enthusiasm for living and achieving our dreams and set goals because of challenges. What we need is to learn how to manage ourselves and through self-management, manage our situations and not loose our joy and enthusiasm which is the lubricant in the engine of success, and in the end, triumph over it. In this teaching, I will be sharing with you things to do when things are not working out well for you, or when there is a standstill kind of situation, or failure, or a threatened termination of dream and project. 1. Keep calm and don t panic.
The first thing you do when you are faced with a difficult situation is to be calm and refuse to panic. Worry and anxiety never gets anything done. It never achieves any good. It is in fact, a clog in the wheel of progress. Worry is the opposite of faith, and it stops God from reaching out to us. Faith on the other hand, pulls God towards our situation and compels Him to act quickly and bring deliverance. When a man is full of anxiety, he doesn t think straight and well. God in Isaiah 30: 15 reveals a powerful law which guides His support for man to overcome his challenges. Quietness and trust in place in the mind and spirit of a man will make God to release strength to go through the challenge before a man without being shattered by it, and come out victorious. True trust in God goes with quietness. To be quiet is to be calm, to be at rest, to be at peace; it means the absence of worry and anxiety. Quietness is a manifestation of confidence in the grace and mercy of God. It is a manifestation of confidence in the willingness and readiness of God to intervene in our life situations and give us victory. The strength of God is only made available when we are quiet within as we trust Him for help. Isa 30:15 15 This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. 2. Maintain positive attitude towards the situation. Be optimistic that you will overcome. To go through a tough time and overcome, one needs a positive attitude. You need to believe in God and in your abilities and potential to come out triumphant. A negative attitude will not help you but fill you with gloominess, darkness and close doors. A positive attitude will help you keep your joy and enthusiasm for life and your dreams. It will help you see light at the end of the tunnel which will encourage and motivate you to keep pushing and searching for solutions. A positive attitude positions you for God s guidance and help. A positive attitude is faith in manifestation. You have to train yourself to believe against all odds that you will always overcome all challenges that come your way. John 16:33 33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." The Lord Jesus Christ told us that we will always have troubles as long as we are alive in this world, but we should not be troubled any time we are faced with one kind or the other, because He has already overcome for us. He overcame, so we can overcome any
and every challenge that will come our way. All believers are overcomers in Christ. He commands us to be of good cheer. That is, to be joyful, even in difficult and challenging times. In other words we are not to allow situations of life to make us loose our joy and enthusiasm for life and success. We only loose our joy when we allow our thoughts to become negative. As long as a man s thoughts are positive towards all he is passing through, he will remain joyful, happy and full of energy to overcome. Never forget that you are born from above, and as a result, you are above all the problems of this life and the evil forces behind them. John 3:31 31 He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. Our problem has always been that we are too earthly minded. We think like normal, earthly, natural man so we respond and react like normal, earthly, natural man. When you think like one who is from above, you see with the eyes of God and you respond and react as one from above (a son of God). From today, be heavenly minded. Stop thinking and seeing like men do. Jesus succeeded because He was heavenly minded. Be heavenly minded when faced with challenges, and you will see that you will be full of faith and great expectations which will take you out of your situation quickly. Rom 8:37-39 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Apostle Paul taught that we are more than conquerors. You cannot be defeated or overcome by situations as long as you do not want to. It is what you allow that happens. If you say no, it will remain no. if you do nothing to stop the devil s advancement against you, then, you are responsible for your own defeat. If you stand up against a challenge, be rest assured that you cannot be conquered. Victory is yours in Christ. Nothing in existence, or that will come in the future can separate you from the love, partnership with, and support of Christ. You are a winner any day, anytime. As long as you are born of God, you are an overcomer. The nature received from Jesus at the new birth is a winning or overcoming nature. You cannot be defeated by any situation or circumstance of life except you allow it. It is your new nature in Christ. Believe it. See yourself always as an overcomer in Christ. Never look down on yourself. Believe and see any and every challenge as something you will overcome. The Lord Jesus Christ is always with you. He lives in you, and as a result, you will always win.
1 John 5:4 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. The victory that overcomes is our faith. You must believe in who you are in Christ. You must believe that you can overcome and you will. If you believe you can, then you can. It is our faith that makes us overcome. Never allow negatives to build up within you. Always be positive minded about life s challenges and you will always overcome them as they come your way. 3. Avoid complaining and grumbling. They put God off, for they are offensive to him. Num 14:26-30 26 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron: 27 "How long this will wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. 28 So tell them, `As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you the very things I heard you say: 29 In this desert your bodies will fall--every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. 30 Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. Grumbling puts God off. It offends Him. Grumblers always incur the wrath of God and not His mercy and favour. Israel suffered a lot of harm on there way to the Promised land because of grumbling and complaining. Instead of faith they allowed evil thoughts to fill their minds each time they are faced with a challenge, which made them speak vile things to the hearing of God. At the end of the day, God decreed that what they said to His hearing, He will do to them - those counted in the census from twenty years of age when they left Egypt, except Joshua and Caleb will all die in the desert and not enter the promise land. And it was so. Never grumble or complain no matter what. Instead, give thanks to God for what you are going through. You are only going through it. You will come out of it. It will not be permanent. Grumbling is so bad that the bible teaches us not to do anything grumbling. We are to show hospitality without grumbling. Grumbling takes away our reward. Trust God that He knows what He is doing and He means well for you. Show your confidence in the wisdom of God in allowing you to go through what you are going through, by giving thanks and refusing to grumble. 1 Peter 4:9 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.
1 Cor 10:10 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did-and were killed by the destroying angel. 4. Don t go telling everybody about your situation. There is a time to tell and there is a time not to tell. Only share your problem with only those who can contribute to the solution. It is not everybody who can contribute to the solution to your problem. Let God guide you to the right person. That is why you need to prayerfully seek God s guidance or you may regret sharing with certain persons later. So many have shared and their secret was heard outside which filled them with anger and hate. Moreover, to guard against wrong counsel, you should only share with the one whom God leads you to after seeking God. The Lord Jesus Himself showed through the following passages that there is a time to share, and there is a time not to share. Seek God to guide you on whom to see that has the solution or can contribute to the solution. Sharing with people to get their sympathy is not wise. Matt 8:4 4 Then Jesus said to him, "See that you don't tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." Matt 17:9 9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, "Don't tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead." Eccl 3:1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: 5. Don t withdraw to yourself, rather, live a normal life. Many people when they have a problem, they withdraw to themselves. They stop going to work, church, fellowship meetings. They stop associating with friends and family. Some go into what I call, a self imposed exile. This is direct result of negative thinking about their challenge. God s desire is that we do not allow our challenges to get into us and take a hold of us to the point we are not able to live a normal life. You need to take charge of your mind and think positively towards your present challenge and take charge of the problem and refuse to allow the problem take charge of you. No matter your situation, be joyful and live a normal life. Go to work, church, and fellowship, relate with your loved ones and friends, behave as if there is no problem in faith, and soon you will be out of the situation.
Always remember you are above all the challenges that you will ever encounter in this life. Prove you are above by literally taking charge of your thoughts and person and not allow the problem to get into you and kill your enthusiasm and joy. John 3:31 31 He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. 6. Go to God in prayer and ask for: insight into the situation a way out clear directions on what to do. Ps 50:15 15 and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me." Matt 7:7 7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. You need to seek God s face for insight into the nature and cause of the challenge. When the hidden is known, then it is no longer a mystery. When the root of a problem is revealed, the problem is half solved. Only God can reveal what is hidden. Pray for God to help you understand the problem so you can solve it with ease. Pray for a way out. Pray for clear instructions action steps to overcome. If you need to see anyone, let God reveal, inspire who, where and when. Always remember that life is a partnership between man and God. If you seek His assistance, God will guide and assist you. 7. Spend time to read your bible daily and focus your mind on God as you clear your thoughts of all worries. Josh 1:8 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Daily meditation on the word of God helps us a lot in building faith and maintaining a positive thought pattern. The word renews our minds and helps us to see things God s way. It fills our minds with thoughts of God. In time of challenge, we focus our minds on the problems that confront us, sometimes negatively and that beclouds our thoughts that we can t see or hear clearly from God. When we give our minds to reading and
meditating on the word of God, we are automatically disconnected from our worries and concerns and focus on God. As our minds are filled with God, we are able to see from God s perspective and hear what God is saying through the problem, and His way out of it. Do not only pray, read and meditate on the word of God. Give ample time to this daily, especially during the period of the crisis. Take notes of the spontaneous thoughts that will be coming to you. Take not of the visions that will be flashing through your mind. 8. Whatever God puts in your mind to do, do it in faith and soon you will be out of the situation. As we expect God to guide us into the solution to our problems, it is important that we listen attentively to what He may say to us and make sure we follow His instructions to the letter. The scripture through the instruction that Mary the mother of Jesus gave the servants at the wedding in Cana, taught us to obey every instruction the Lord gives to us without questioning His wisdom and rationalizing it. If the servants where not instructed to just obey and don t question the wisdom behind the instruction, they would not have given the water they fetched from the well into the jar to the master of ceremony to serve the guests as wine. They were amazed that the water became wine, yet they never knew how and when it became wine seeing that they were the ones that fetched and filled the jar with water and drew from it and gave to the master of ceremony. John 2:5 5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." Miracles always happen when we obey promptly and wholeheartedly simple instructions that God gives us. Whatever He tells you as you wait on Him for a way out, do it without rationalizing it. Look out for those spontaneous thoughts that will come to your mind as you wait on God. Be mindful of them. Be mindful also of the images or pictures that God will bring to your mind. It could be somebody you may need to see or share with. As you obey, you will become victorious by the help and power of God. CONCLUSION If you will decide today to be victorious and never to allow a challenge to win over you, you will be a celebrity. If you will work with these eight principles I have shared with you, you will never lose your joy or enthusiasm for living, you will always be on top of any and every challenge that will come your way. Remember, what you permit in your life will enter and remain in your life, but what you disallow will exit and stay out of your life.