Jerusha: I’m delighted to have blogger Diane Ferreira as my guest today! Please join me in giving her a big, Fear Warrior community welcome!
By Diane Ferreira
We have all heard the expression, “Every cloud has a silver lining.”
It essentially refers to the fact that every problem, every issue that we have in life comes with some positive aspect to it. It could be a lesson to learn, a relationship formed, a barrier overcome, help obtained. But, somewhere in the problem there is a positive.
And we as Christians know this to be true. Very often when we go through trials we can see how God worked in our situation or used it somehow for good or to help change us in some area we struggle with.
The problem with silver linings is that in order to see them, you actually have to look at the cloud.
But many of us don’t ever get to see the silver lining that God has for us in the situation because we are resistant, we are hesitant, or we outright refuse to look at and really examine the problem.
What this leads to is us going through the same struggles over and over again.
A good example of this would be financial problems.
Many people with financial difficulties go through the same issues again and again because many times they are unwilling or unable to look at the real problem. They just get into a cycle where they repeat the same behaviors.
You cannot fix any problem until you face it and deal with it.
And many of us don’t want to do that…because it’s painful, it is difficult, it is embarrassing…or maybe it’s fear! Facing the problem head on and fixing it requires ACTION…and sometimes the thought of acting creates a level of fear we perceive to be actually worse than the problem itself.
Maybe it is a problem in your marriage that you’ve been ignoring because you fear that facing it could cause your marriage to crumble. Maybe you bottle things up because you fear mentioning it will cause a big blow-up! You enter into a cycle of avoidance.
The fear of fixing the problem becomes greater than the problem itself.
But in order to get to that silver lining, you have to face that cloud.
You have to acknowledge the problem and take steps to solve it or get help where it’s needed. Ignoring it won’t make it go away.
Once you dive right into the act of problem solving, God can use that to do a work in you or do a work in somebody else…maybe someone you are praying for and bring about change. But we need to participate and be change agents WITH God.
We can’t just sit idly by and wait for things to get better. We need to act, and it’s possible that the only action you can take is to get on your knees in prayer. But getting into the act of prayer IS facing the problem because you have to acknowledge it in order to pray about it.
Many times, we think if we ignore an issue it will fix itself or just go away. It won’t. God does not tell us to have a spirit of fear!
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind – 2 Timothy 1:7
Fear could be in the problem itself or in the work we need to do to fix it.
It could be that your problem is like mine. It could be you have to forgive someone for something that is very difficult to forgive and still feels very painful. Maybe you start to avoid the person or distance yourself from them instead of dealing with it by letting them know how it made you feel and addressing the issue with them.
What if they don’t care? What if it damages the relationship permanently? What if they get angry with YOU and don’t receive what you are saying?
And then there’s the prospect of having to forgive them regardless and move on. It could be that you need to forgive and then release that person from your life and you know that you have to do that, and you don’t want to.
Fear is a tactic of the enemy to keep us weighed down with our burdens and from seeing God move in our lives. Fear paralyzes. It keeps us repeating the same behaviors over and over again. It keeps us inactive.
Satan loves little more than an inactive, ineffective Christian. He loves to see us struggling under the crushing weight of our problems. He loves to see us repeating old patterns of behavior.
This is what fear causes us to do.
Step out from under that fear and face the cloud!
If you have problems that you have not been facing, go to God in prayer about them and ask Him for help. He will give you the grace and mercy to get through it when you seek His help. Ask Him how He wants you to deal with the situation and get help from someone if He leads you to.
Can you think of a time in your life where you avoided facing a problem and it worsened because of it? Feel free to share in the comments how facing an issue in your life allowed you to see God working in the situation!
Diane Ferreira is a wife and mom, a Jewish believer in Yeshua (Jesus) and a blogger. She lives in Northwestern Connecticut and, when not blogging, you will find her spending time with her husband and kids…or up in her craft room designing custom tumblers, making reading pillows or quilting for her custom design business, Anjou Designs.
She is also an avid amateur genealogist and loves researching her family history.
Diane has been saved since 1996 and has been involved in ministry since that time, serving in both Messianic (Christian) Jewish congregations as well as traditional Christian churches.
Read more from Diane at her blog, Worth Beyond Rubies, and connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Comments 4
Ignoring things never works, just prolongs the issue. Thanks for your helpful post.
Thank you Anne!!
Thank you so much Anne!! You’re right…ignoring it never works!!
I like your reminder that fear keeps us …weighed down with our burdens and from seeing God move in our lives. I have been dealing with various fears a lot lately and what has helped the most is focusing on God and the promises in His Word. He does work through fearful situations and then the next time we can look back and remember how he helped us. Thank you for your post!