Dealing With Adversity
Yesterday, I listened to a wonderful interview with Valorie Burton on a Christian radio station. I don’t know much about her story, but I first learned about her at a seminar for Life Coaches. Everything I’ve heard from her thus far, is excellent.
As I sat listening to Valerie’s interview, I found her words to be confirmation to the correctness of things I found helpful for myself on my healing journey years ago. These are the same things I now share with the people I minister to and coach. Here are some of the highlights from her interview combined with my own thoughts…
When dealing with adversity we need to cling to the Word of God.
When we feel our thoughts spiraling down, we need to take action steps by re-directing our thoughts to “God thoughts”. We need to remember scripture… we need to remember the promises in God’s word… and we need to remember things that God has done for us in the past. We must be intentional with our thought life and not let negativity settle in.
Resilient people reach out. When we isolate ourselves during adversity or grief, we start thinking thoughts like, “I’m all alone in this”. “No one has ever faced anything like this before”. “There is no hope”…these are all things that Satan would like us to think and he is thrilled when we isolate ourselves so he can fill our thoughts with negativity and discourage us. When we start talking to people, we find out we’re not alone, we’re not the only ones that have ever been through situations like ours and we learn of people who have not only survived, but thrived…and that gives us hope!
We may not have a choice about walking through the fiery trials, but we do have a choice as to if we will let them consume us. God does walk with us, as surely as he did with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. If you remember the story, God delivered them unscathed from a literal fiery furnace. Observers saw another person in the fire with them..that was God himself! The Lord equips us, and watches over us, so that as it says in Job 23:10 ”But He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold”. The fiery trials that Satan would use to destroy us, God uses as a refiner’s fire, so that we will come forth purified as gold and silver.
Don’t let Satan have the upper hand, use the tools God has given you to help take every thought captive! 
