Facing Adversity

​Great Quotes on Adversity…

• On page 238 in Tim Tebow’s book entitled Through My Eyes, Tim states that, “Sometimes, people see more of your witness when you’re facing adversity than when everything is going your way. People expect you to be a good winner, but they know how agonizing it is to lose. When you are able to reflect God’s light during those times of great disappointment, it can have quite an impact...I know that somewhere people may be watching you or me, and how they see us handle the adversity that comes into our lives could make a difference in how they handle something they face in their lives.”
• ESPN Analysist, Seth Greenberg once stated that, “adversity reveals character.”
• After recording the NBA’s worst loss ever, the OKC Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. "We're still grateful to be playing basketball. Adversity tests the connection of the team. It tests everything. It squeezes you. It shows you who you are." Link to Full Article
• New Mexico State Football Coach Doug Martin on ESPN "Adversity will define you, it'll introduce you to yourself...step up and face it." "Losing will beat you down, it will beat you down to where you learn how to accept it and then you get the woe is me, well, we're never going to do it. Well it's been done here before, they've won here before, it's been a long time, but I think that continuous losing has beaten people down."
  • Now it’s just a matter of how you view your “beaten down” moments in life. Are you ever really losing when you’re on the Lord’s team?
    • 1 Corinthians 15:57 (ESV) But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
    • Romans 8:37 (NLT) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
    • 2 Corinthians 2:14 (NLT) But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume.
    • 1 John 5:4 (NLT) For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.

Biblical Example of someone who caused Adversity in the lives of followers of Christ.

• Saul (later became known as the Apostle Paul) persecuted believer’s and caused them great adversity…even to the point of martyrdom.
  • Galatians 1:13 (NLT) You know what I was like when I followed the Jewish religion—how I violently persecuted God’s church. I did my best to destroy it.
  • Acts 22:4-8 (NLT) And I persecuted the followers of the Way, hounding some to death, arresting both men and women and throwing them in prison. The high priest and the whole council of elders can testify that this is so. For I received letters from them to our Jewish brothers in Damascus, authorizing me to bring the followers of the Way from there to Jerusalem, in chains, to be punished. “As I was on the road, approaching Damascus about noon, a very bright light from heaven suddenly shone down around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ “‘Who are you, lord?’ I asked. “And the voice replied, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, the one you are persecuting.’
    • Notice Christ didn’t say, “why are you persecuting Stephen or the church.” He said “me.”
      • John 7:7 (NLT) The world can’t hate you, but it does hate me because I accuse it of doing evil.
  • 1 Timothy 1:15 (NLT) This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all.

Stephen and other believers were a testimony to Saul while Saul caused them adversity, persecution, and martyrdom.

• Acts 7:54-8:2 (NLT) 54 The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen’s accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 56 And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!” 57 Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him 58 and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died.
  8 Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria. 2 (Some devout men came and buried Stephen with great mourning.) 3 But Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison.
• Sometimes we wonder why loved ones pass away too soon. Why good godly people leave this earth way too early. God can use the death of a loved one to bring others to Himself. What happened as a result of Stephen and other believers getting martyred?

Saul becomes a follower of Christ on the road to Damascus and is forever remembered as the Apostle Paul. A further reminder that there’s purpose behind our adversity…prove you’re on God’s team no matter what comes your way. Forgive others and trust the Lord’s plan. Maybe, just maybe you’ll have a lasting impact on someone like Saul, and they will come to know Christ because of how they saw Jesus through you in the times they persecuted you.

• Stephen planted the seed, other martyrs watered the seed, but God made the seed grow inside Saul/Paul. Due to Stephen and other martyrs’ testimonies, Saul became a follower of Christ…the Apostle Paul.
• How God works on a planted seed in the hearts of all mankind…
  • 1 Corinthians 3:6-8 (NLT) 6 I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. 7 It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work.
• Acts 13:9a (NLT) Saul, also known as Paul, was filled with the Holy Spirit, 
• 1 Corinthians 15:9 (NLT) For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God’s church. But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me—and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace.

Songs:

• Praise you in this Storm by Casting Crowns
• Let Them See You by JJ Weeks Band