Trust is easy when we feel great and things are going our way. The secret to victorious living, however, is to trust God more than our feelings.
“Feeling helpless doesn’t mean everything is hopeless.”
When we have a child or grandchild in the hospital, we must trust God. When our pay check is barely enough to make ends meet, trust God. We must trust God when our landlord demands our late rent payment. When our joints ache, we can be victorious. Many things in our lives may not be good, but God is good. And, he is looking out for our good.
Impossible Problem
A few years ago, I was faced with an impossible problem. Our church had been praying for a desperate family. A mother with four children were facing eviction. They were living in a rough part of Detroit and had gotten into a conflict with a neighbor, a local drug dealer. He had busted out their front window, kicked in the front door, punched the mother, and put a gun in her face, threatening to kill her. The police had been called, but in a city plagued by crime, this wasn’t a top priority. My naive answer was to talk with the landlord, surely the landlord would not want the property to be destroyed and would put pressure on the police.
I discovered that the landlord was an elderly woman, who had grown up in the house. Her family had moved to the suburbs when the neighborhood began to decline. She was just as afraid of the drug dealing neighbor as was the mother we were trying to help. The landlord’s solution was to evict the desperate family in hopes that the drug dealer would have no reason to continue destroying her house. Crazy! Right?
So, it was now December and we had been trying for months to find alternative housing for this family. You may have guessed that the desperate family was not living in such a bad area by choice. They had been evicted before, she had bad credit, and her income was less than stable. Our church board had met and voted to provide money to help on a temporary basis. However, even with our promise of support, finding a rental had been a discouraging endeavor.
Listening to God
We continued to pray, but had exhausted everything we could think of to do, and the eviction date was getting closer. I felt the Holy Spirit saying to me that we should purchase this family a house. Actually, this was not the first time I felt the Holy Spirit pushing me in this direction. Previously, I proposed this idea to the board and they said, “No.” We simply did not have the financial resources for such a bold move.
Regardless, I had an even stronger sense that I was hearing from God. So, we started looking for houses, hoping for a miracle. Then, I found an abandoned house which needed some work, but was still above our price range. Amazingly, the next thing that happened was unbelievable. I received a telephone call from a wealthy individual offering a $40,000 interest-free loan, enough for the purchase price and the repairs necessary to make the house livable. God had provided the answer.
Feeling helpless doesn’t mean everything is hopeless. When you are stressed and can’t imagine a way out of a bad situation, God can open your eyes to his victory. He can wake you up to smell the coffee and see the light. Then, what felt impossible will feel possible. Victorious living is within reach!
“With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
—Mark 10:27
Copyright © 2023 Chuck Locklear
Also, see Victorious Living.