Dennis Edwards
The word resilience means the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.[1] It is a term that has been used to describe people that bounce back from negative experiences and disturbances.[2] Resilience is the ability to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens.[3] Resilience is the ability to withstand adversity and bounce back from difficult life events.[4]
The question my friend asked me was “How can faith in God be a factor in giving us resilience?” Here’s how I responded.
If we have faith in God, the God of the Bible, the God of love as seen through the life of Jesus Christ as our foundation belief, then we know that God loves us. We know that He is ultimately in control of everything that happens in our lives. We know that He will not let anything happen to us, unless He can use it to work together for our good. Therefore, we can put on the glasses of Romans 8:28 and look at all the circumstances that take place in our lives through those glasses:
“We know all things work together for good to them that love God.” [Romans 8:28]
If we love God, we will not let bitterness or hatred come into our lives when we go through trials and difficulties. We will not fall into lack of faith or doubt. Why? Because we know that God can use every situation in our lives for something good. We can face whatever difficulties that come against us in a positive way as a result. We use Romans 8:28 to filter all our life experiences.
Alenandre Solsynitsyn in Russia, and Wormbrandt in Romania, and other men and women of God, went through extreme persecution and years in prison or labour camps. They went through the most horrowing experiences. But because they had that faith in God, they made it. Their relationship with God helped them to rise above the physical circumstances they were experiencing. The key to their resilience was their faith. They knew that God existed and that He loved them. The key to facing life’s difficulties and being able to recover and move forward is knowing a loving God exists. We, therefore, know that He is going to work every situation for our good, as long as we keep loving Him.
Romans 8:35-39 tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let us read from Apostle Paul’s epistle:
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we accounted as sheep for the slaughter. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Knowing that God loves us, helps us see things in a different perspective from those who do not have faith. Even if I am experiencing a problem, even though my son has died drowning in the sea, I still know that God loves me. I know He has a reason for why He allowed my son’s death to occur. Therefore, I am going to trust Him. I am going to let God transform the bad that has happened, as He works in my heart and mind, into something good in my life. I know that all things work together for good to those that love God, all things, even the death of my son.
God used that dreadful experience to help make changes in my life, changes in the way I fathered my children. He used that experience to break my heart and soften it. He used that experience to make me a more loving, and kind, and gentler parent, like a father should be. I had failed my son who had died. I was not there when he needed me the most. I did not even have a very good line of communication with him. I thought God would take care of him. But God had me partnering with Him in that job, and I neglected it.
In my failure, I cried out to God to forgive me and to help me to do better with my other children. What a sad experience to go through. But, I needed a dire experience to wake me up to the sorry state of my parenting. I needed an experience like that to see the sad state of my heart. My attitude, my priorities were not right. The way I interacted with my sons needed major improvement. I needed to learn the patient way of love, instead the impatient rule of force.
I am reminded of the famous Christian businessman and supporter of Dwight L. Moody whose four daughters died on a voyage to England. The ship they were sailing on was struck by a cargo ship and went down in a short period of time. Only his wife survived. The father had stayed behind because some business problem arose just as they were about to disembark from New York. As a result of that tragic accident, Horatio G. Spafford wrote a beautiful song, which has been a comfort and strength to countless believers, “It is Well with My Soul.”
“When peace like a river attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul… Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control, That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate, And hath shed His own blood for my soul… My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part but the whole, Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!...For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live: if Jordan above me shall roll, No pains shall be mine, for in death as in life, Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul… And Lord haste the day, when the faith shall be sight, The clouds be rolled back like a scroll; The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, Even so, it is well with my soul…(Refrain:) It is well (it is well), with my soul (with my soul), It is well, it is well with my soul.” [5]
A few years later, Spafford made the to decision to drop-out of the Presbyterian congregation, and began prayer meetings in his own home. His Messianic Sect was named “The Overcomers” by the press. He and his wife were to later form a Christian communal–living colony in Jerusalem involved in humanitarian work. Like many of those dedicated to Christ, our hearts need to be broken before the water of God’s love can be poured out to refresh the people. As a result of the crushing and bruising of life’s deadly blows, a wealthy businessman left all to follow Christ and bring the love of Jesus to Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem. God uses terribly sad life events to work in our hearts and bring forth the fruit He desires in our character and in our lives.
In Apostle Paul's 2nd letter to the Corinthians he shows that same resilient spirit when he writes,
“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in dispair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body….For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”[II Corinthians 4:8-10, 16-18.]
When we have the personal relationship with Jesus, we are able to face whatever devastating experience life brings, with the faith that God is with us and will use it for our good. We are able to be resilient, because our eyes are on heaven,
“...from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”[Philippians 3:20]
By looking unto Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith[Hebrews 12:2], we know that life is transitory, that Heaven is real, that one day we will have new bodies like Christ’s, therefore, we do not fear what life can do unto us. We are able to embrace Romans 8:28 in its fulness and know that truly all things will work together for good to us who love God. We can, therefore, run with patience the race that is set before us.[Hebrews 12:1] We can rise above the circumstances of life in full confidence that God is love and will bring good fruit to all our life experiences, as we keep Him first place in our heart, mind, body, and soul.
God is good all the time and all things truly do work together for good to them that love God.
