Christian Survival Kit: Chapter 1 - part 7

Problems or Choices — Take Your Pick

Like any ministry, we've had financial problems from time to time. But I live by the same thing I'm teaching you. I don't think I brought these problems on specifically by what I did, but as I grow older in the Lord and get wiser, I'm sure I'll make better decisions that will avoid many of these problems. 

However, I've made some critical choices, and one thing I've chosen is not to let my heart be troubled. People on my staff have come to me saying, "You must not have gotten the full picture — you don't understand how bad this is," because it hasn't bothered me. 

But I understand exactly how bad it is.
If you begin to walk in these principles and choose not to let your heart be troubled, I guarantee you it's going to upset people. People will think you're a "brick short of a full load."  Or your elevator doesn't go all the way to the top. You're one donut short of a dozen. They'll think something is wrong with you because you aren't acting normal.
But praise God, we aren't supposed to be normal! God made us to be a supernatural people. 

Seek the Lord — or Get Ready!

When a crisis hits, you need to be prepared. You need to have your heart ready. I've been meditating on a scripture lately in 2 Chronicles 12. This is the story of King Rehoboam, Solomon's son. He started out good. He started seeking God, but he turned out bad and actually got into idolatry. It says, "And he did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the LORD" (verse 14). 

Rehoboam didn't want to do evil. He started out doing the right thing, but he gravitated toward evil because he didn't prepare his heart to seek the Lord. He didn't commit himself. He had a desire to do it, but his heart was on other things. It wasn't single upon the Lord. 

When you come into a crisis situation, if you haven't chosen to seek the Lord, if you haven't already made some decisions, your heart is going to gravitate toward fear. It's going to gravitate toward depression, toward negativism, toward defeat. You've got to commit yourself. You've got to fix your heart so that no matter what the devil does, you're going to walk in victory. You're going to keep your eyes on the Lord. 

Your attitude should be, "Satan, you can't do enough to keep me from thinking on the Lord!" If you haven't made that commitment, you're a problem waiting to happen — and it's going to come. 

The Great Melting Pot — Vietnam

When I went through the service, I only heard one good thing from a chaplain the whole time I was there. Most of the chaplains I had weren't born again. The day we got our orders to go to Vietnam, grown men began to cry. It was a tragic situation. 

This chaplain came in to console everybody. He said that the Army and its experiences, including Vietnam, was a fire. It will melt you. But you'll fit into whatever mold you've picked for yourself. That was a true statement.
Because I had already set my heart on the Lord, I was determined that I was going to go all the way for God.
 All the pressures, all the horror I went through, drove me that much more to the Lord. When I came out of Vietnam, I was stronger than horseradish!
 I was walking with the Lord, the joy of the Lord was in my heart, and I was a thousand miles further in my Christian walk. 

A lot of other soldiers didn't have that experience. There were many who weren't necessarily evil. They probably had never done anything bad to speak of back in the States. But put under that kind of pressure, with no restraints upon them, with everybody else doing it, these good, moral people, these churchgoers, these upstanding citizens, went the other route. 

One after another, I saw them go in to prostitutes, get drunk, take dope, and do every other terrible thing. It was because their hearts weren't already fixed. They hadn't prepared them. 

Swaying Like the Psalms

In Psalm 42, the writer is talking about all his problems. He says that as the deer pants after the water brook, so his soul pants after God (verse 1). He says that he desires only God, and the reason he desires God is that things aren't going well for him. In verse 5, he says, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance." 

In other words, right in the middle of his complaint, he says, "Why am I discouraged, why is my soul cast down? I can hope in God. I've got a covenant with God. He's on my side. Why should I be discouraged?" 

Then he goes back to complaining and ends the chapter with "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God."
In chapter 43, he complains again. Finally, in verse 5, he says, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God."
Here is the writer of these psalms talking about all the frustrations that are coming his way, but he had to constantly remind himself, "Why am I discouraged?" You need to ask yourself that same question.

Why are we discouraged like people who don't have a God? 
How could we ever go back to the level of discouragement and despair we had before we were born again, after God has done so many great things for us? 

We need to recognize that it's not God who doesn't have power. It's not God who is not faithful.
 We are the problem. 

We've missed it in the very first thing Jesus commanded His disciples to do — we've let our heart be troubled, and we feel justified in doing it. Then we wonder why we aren't prospering, why we're sick, why we're depressed. We haven't even chosen life. We've chosen death.