Trouble

Seems like everyone has trouble these days and more is on the way. Our world seems on the verge of political chaos and economic collapse. We are mired in what we politely call morality confusion; what we use to call sin. We can distance ourselves from these big picture troubles, but trouble comes home to roost. Nearly everyone I know has issues of finance, family, or health. Everyone seems to struggle with purpose. “What’s it all about? Where do I fit in? What’s my purpose?”

Trouble seems to attack from all corners. If we dodge trouble coming from the left, we are hit by trouble from the back. Trouble seems to be coming from everywhere and everyone.

The world. Jesus told us that “in this world you will have trouble.” The very nature of the world produces trouble. Folks have to make a living, eat, find shelter. Getting these things is troublesome. For those of us who have the basics, we see trouble in not having more.

Satan. That roar you hear is Satan looking to cause you trouble. Don’t doubt it. He’s a professional trouble maker.

God. I know He’s the loving Father, but the trials and test often come from Him. I like to call them, course corrections, but they sure seem like trouble at the time.

Status.  As children of the King, we inspire hatred in the world. More and more we are seeing trouble because of who we are in Christ as we try to live that out. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.”

Self. The truth is I cause most of my trouble. I love what Theodore Roosevelt said,

“If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.”

My biggest problem in dealing with trouble is identifying the source. When I am trying to make a decision and trouble comes, I can’t tell whether it’s God telling me to go a different way for my own good, or it’s Satan trying to prevent me from carrying on God’s will. Sometimes it’s neither, it’s just the world or some past mistake of mine coming back from the dead.

Sometimes I blame myself for something, and miss a stop sign God is putting up. Sometimes I feel personally attacked when trouble is coming because I’m a child of the King. Obviously the first and most important step in dealing with trouble is identifying the source. The only way I know how to do that is to cultivate a habit of prayer. I’m not talking about the talking and asking kind of prayer, but the silent, listening kind. God is ready to guide us through trouble, but we have to know His voice. That takes practice.

Once the source is identified, we can move to the other kinds of prayer: the asking kind when we seek help from above, and the questioning kind when we ask not just for God to do something, but direction about what we should do.

If we have spent time in scripture, we often find trouble busting help there. There are not a lot of new problems, the story of someone with the same struggle is probably recorded in scripture. How did that work out?

In communion with God, we can find the source of our trouble and make the proper response. Otherwise we will wander aimlessly with the rest of the world.

The trouble with life isn’t that there is no answer, it’s that there are so many answers.

Trouble is here for a reason. He can show us where it comes from and how to deal with it. It’s what a good Daddy does.