When Trouble Comes Our Way
When I was a young boy my mind was always on baseball, riding my bike, and playing with friends. It was a great life, I didn’t worry about a thing. “Hey, mom, I'm riding over to Donny’s to play some catch.” “Ok, be careful and have a good time.” What a life! As I grew older trouble started coming my way. “Hey mom, I had a bike wreck and busted off half my front tooth.” “What!” it was around this time that the whats started to become “now what?” I began to realize life was not all fun and games. In fact, it was chock-full of trouble. My teachers started sending more notes home, I failed the third grade. Trouble became my companion. Turns out we are born into a world full of trouble, some of our own makings, and much more we can't control. I was setting on the freeway in a traffic jam minding my own business when some guy failed to stop and rammed me into the car ahead totaling my new Mercury Cougar. What a life! Well, making fun of a few small problems is one thing, dealing with real-life trouble is something altogether different. Social dysfunction, corruption, deadly weather conditions, drug addiction, suicide, sickness and disease, wars, famine, death, and so it goes, too much trouble to count. Jesus understood the problem and warned, “In this world, you will have troubles.” (John 16:33)
The term “this world” is used 58 times in the new testament. It implies there is more than one world. The Bible teaches this world was hijacked by a rogue angel bent on ruling his own kingdom. Adam's original sin was the transgression Satan needed to pull off a takeover. All people are infected with Adam’s sinful nature and follow after the ruler of this world. Jesus the sinless son of God was sent to save us from this troubled world. “be brave! I have defeated this world!”(John 16:33) Trouble follows after us because we live in the heart of it. Our struggle to defeat sinful nature is too weak to succeed. Jesus said it this way, “ Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”(Matt. 26:41) We need a supernatural intervention to overcome this troubled world. Jesus is the intervention. How we manage this opportunity is up to us as individuals. We can accept or reject Jesus saving grace. It will not guarantee an absence of trouble in this world but it will supply the tools necessary to combat the trouble that comes our way, and it will guarantee us residence in another world where trouble does not exist.
Trouble is satan’s war against God; we are God’s combatants in this world. Our weapons are mighty! '“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.“(2 Cor. 10:4) They are not carnal, they are spiritual weapons from another world designed to do battle with beings from another world. We are doing battle against the princes of darkness who rule this world. The greatest weapon in our war chest is the absolute truth. To take advantage of the truth we must have abiding faith in every word. Only a believer in Jesus Christ can expect consistent results. Stay in touch with God through steady prayer and supplication. Ask God for anything in agreement with the Word of God.” (Ep.6:12-18) This is what we do when trouble comes our way, we put up a fight using the weapons of our warfare. For more about your relationship with Jesus Christ read “Beam me up Commander” it’s free.
