What If . . . You Suddenly Lose Everything?
What would your faith look like if a day came when you lose everything?
Remembering God’s Sovereignty in the Midst of Loss
Life can be humming along as usual, and then in a matter of seconds, everything falls apart.
In those times of sudden loss, life can become borderline unbearable.
It may be the death of a child, the loss of your home, or debilitating illness or injury. The suddenness of such tragedies almost collapses us emotionally. What if you were to lose everything? What would you do? How would you respond?
Cynthia and I knew a family many years ago who suffered such a tragedy. One night the father said good-bye to his family as the wife and his three children drove to their classes at a local gym. The children were gymnasts training for competition.
That night, none of them came home.
As the minutes turned into hours, this man grew more anxious. Then he heard sirens in the distance, and a cold chill ran down his spine. The sirens seemed too close for comfort. He drove up over the hill near their home and saw that there had been a horrible collision. The flashing beacons of the emergency vehicles unnerved him.
He later found out that his wife and all three of his children had been killed in a terrible head-on collision. They all died instantly.
Shocked, disillusioned, and blinded by grief, he tried to make sense of an empty home and a future without anyone in the family he loved.
Life was suddenly unbearable.
He had lost everything.
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Safety & Security Not Guaranteed
None of us are immune to loss.
If your life hasn’t been touched by tragedy yet, it is likely only a matter of time before you encounter a crisis of some kind. In this broken and fallen world, safety and security are not guaranteed.
Over these many years in ministry that the Lord has granted me, one of my great goals has been to proclaim this all-important truth: God is in charge. He is over everything. He is sovereign. He rules graciously and powerfully from heaven in perfect wisdom, love, and grace (see Psalm 11).
Whatever you are facing, adverse or delightful, your life is all about God . . . His will . . . His way.
But we easily lose our theological moorings when we insist on living horizontally.
When we do, the winds of adversity eventually cause us to drift from what we truly believe. How much better to choose a response of faith that submits to God’s sovereign will, yielding to His gracious purposes in both giving and taking away those things and people we hold dear.
After all, that’s His sovereign right. God doesn’t exist to make us healthy and happy. He exists to glorify His name. We are the channel through which that glory flows.
Walking in Faith When You Seemingly Lose Everything
Faith consists in knowing your heavenly Father is at work for His glory and for your good, to mold you into the image of His Son, Jesus. That’s what life is about!
If it takes the loss of everything to gain that vertical perspective, then embrace the loss.
If it takes your broken dreams and an abandonment of what you had counted on all your life to realign your life vertically, then abandon it. It is all about God, who gives and takes away.
If you learn nothing else in your years walking with the Lord, learn and accept that God is in control, that He is sovereign.
Embrace the fact that what you are going through is divinely guided by a heavenly Father who loves you too much to do anything cruel to you.
Remember: God exists in a realm beyond our comprehension.
He’s not some crusty old man with a long beard blowing wind out of the north. God is incomprehensibly great.
He’s omniscient. He’s omnipotent. He’s omnipresent. He’s eternal. He’s ageless and timeless. He’s good. He’s gracious. He’s loving and just.
And He’s always right . . . even when you feel like what happened to you was all wrong.
What If . . . God Has Other Plans?
This book is Chuck Swindoll at his best, opening Scripture and finding hope and wisdom for those who are struggling with the unexpected situations life has thrown at them.
What if . . . God has other plans for your life?
What if . . . you are designed for something more?
This encouraging book of hope when you suddenly lose everything is a new release and available—>HERE!
Adapted from What If . . . God Has Other Plans? Finding Hope When Life Throws You the Unexpected by Charles R. Swindoll, releasing from Tyndale House Publishers in September 2019.
This post may contain affiliate links through which Club31Women might get a small compensation – with no additional cost to you. See my disclosure policy here.
