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Dear All, my name is Tan Kang Fun but I am better known as KF Tan in the market place. I am currently the CEO of a health trust company in Singapore. I started my career as an auditor with one of the Big 4 firms before I joined a chemical company back in 1990. In year 2000, I moved to a high performance material manufacturing plant where I was the Managing Director. Before my present position, I was with healthcare companies where I had different roles at different point in time as the CPO, CFO and COO.
Who Do You Turn To When You Are Discouraged?
How nice if life is predictable. Imagine we can pick and choose what we want to go through and what we do not want in our lives. Life will be perfect, isn’t it? But we all know that this is just not possible. Even if you dream about it in your sleep, you’ll still need to face another day when you wake up. And this could be a day that probably you don’t feel like going to work or to school. We live in a world that has lots of problems. This is the reality of life. As the Scripture says in Job 5:7 “Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.” All of us experience adversity at different times and in varying degrees throughout our lives. May be some of you are going through trials that may discourage you at some point in the future or, worse still, some of you are already being discouraged because of issues you are currently facing. What I am saying is that being discouraged is part and parcel of life because we live in an imperfect world. What sets us apart from the world is how we, as Christians, handle discouragement.
“Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.”
(Job 5:7)
Being discouraged is part and parcel of life,
because we live in an imperfect world.
What sets us apart from the world is
how we, as Christians, handle discouragement.
I empathize with those who find it difficult to trust and depend on God during trial. I have been there myself to know something of the distress, the despair, and the darkness that fill our souls when we wonder if God truly cares about our plight. In order to depend on God, we must always view our adverse circumstances through the eyes of faith, not of sense or feeling. If we let emotion control us, we will always feel defeated. Just as the faith of salvation comes through hearing the message of the gospel (Romans 10:17 tells us that “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”). Thus, the faith to depend on God in trial comes through the Word of God alone. It is only in the Scriptures that we find an adequate view of God’s relationship to and involvement in our painful circumstances. It is only from the Scriptures, applied to our hearts by the Holy Spirit, that we receive the grace to depend on God in trial.
In order to depend on God,
we must always view our adverse circumstances
through the eyes of faith, not of sense or feeling.
If we let emotion control us, we will always feel defeated.
The faith to depend on God in trial comes through the Word of God alone.
The trial I was going through has not been easy for my family and I. Yes, everybody was affected and we need to make adjustment in our lives to accommodate one another. I know my wife and our children, at times, are trying their best to encourage me. I truly appreciate what they are doing for me. However, their actions could not give me the peace until I go to the Word of God. The psalmist said in Psalm 119:50 “This is my comfort in my affliction, For Your word has given me life.” This verse is so powerful to uplift one in trial where through God’s word one can find comfort during adversity. The comfort I can draw from God’s word is that it gives me hope when I depend on Him of my affliction. I know He is in control and He has allowed it to happen for a purpose. Since God is sovereign, it will be foolish of me if I don’t totally depend on Him in my adversity. To put it simply, if someone on his death bed needed an organ transplant and at the eleventh hour the transplant took place and was successful, that person has been given a new lease of life. Likewise, the power of Psalm 119:50 is that you can find comfort in your affliction through God’s word where it can give you hope and life, just like the man who got his transplant done successfully!
“This is my comfort in my affliction,
For Your word has given me life.”
(Psalm 119:50)
through God’s word, one can find comfort during adversity…
He is in control and He has allowed it to happen for a purpose.
Since God is sovereign, it will be foolish of me
if I don’t totally depend on Him in my adversity.
Another great verse that has encouraged me in my trial is Isaiah 41:10 “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” This verse is so powerful that there are three things God promised to do for us. God said “I will strengthen you.” So if you are weak during trial, all you need to do is ask and it shall be given – ask strength from God to see you through the trial. There is no bargain here. The problem with us is that we always shy away from God’s promises. We want to depend on our own strength or, worst, we have doubt whether God can give us the strength. As a result, we don’t ask God for help. If you don’t ask, you’ll not get it. It is as simple as that! So, humble yourself and ask with pure heart and God will give liberally to walk with you.
“Fear not, for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you.
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
(Isaiah 41:10)
The second thing God will do for you is “He will help you.” This is a bold promise! Question is, are we ready to ask God? Let me just elaborate so that we are clear what is being said here. When someone said I will help you to do something you requested, it literally means certain task will be done without you having to do anything about it. This implies your workload will be lightened. Likewise, in this verse here when God said “Yes, I will help you”, God doesn’t mince His word. He meant what He said in Isaiah 41:10. So if God is willing to help, are you willing to ask so that you don’t have to carry the whole load yourself?
The conclusion to Isaiah 41:10 is that God will not only strengthen you, help you, but will also “uphold you with His righteous right hand.” God in His infinite wisdom and perfect love for us, will not leave us nor forsake us during our trial, but, in fact, He will walk with us through the trial. Therefore, it is obvious who we should turn to when we are discouraged. We need to turn to God in prayer and depend on His word to give us the source to life!
How To Depend on God?
I am not a Prophet nor a Bible Theologian to teach you on how to depend on God. I am just a layman who can share with you my experience on how I depend on God almost all the times since I became a Christian. I said “almost all the times” because there will be times we take matters into our own hands thinking that we can deal with them. Sadly, all the times we can’t and still need to go back to God again. There are 2 verses in the Bible that always bring me to know how to depend on God.
I want to share with you 2 very important verses from the book of Philippians. In Philippians 4: 6&7, God wants to have a deal with you. God wants you to depend on Him in one verse and He will carry out the second for you. Isn’t this wonderful? What sort of deal can be so good nowadays? Let us go through these 2 verses carefully because God wants to have a deal with you. God says you depend on Verse 6 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God”. Once you have done Verse 6 then God will carry out Verse 7 for you “and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus”. Isn’t this great! What more can you ask from God? You do verse 6 and God will give you verse 7. From secular perspective, this is very fair. Meaning you do your bit according to what I want and you will be rewarded. Let us refer to the Scripture text again and see what does God really wants us to depend on Him? Verse 6 clearly states that God wants us to do 3 things, just 3 things – nothing more and nothing less. God wants you to depend on Him by being able to:-
The summary of this three snapshots of verse 6 was coined by DL Moody. Look closely at the verse again. You can see for yourself that I did not make it up but rather a clear instruction from God telling us to depend on Him for the 3 things. Once you have done these 3 things, the peace of God will reign in your hearts and minds. Remember, if you want to have the peace of God, you must do your part by adhering to the 3 keys that God wants you to depend on Him. To be continued …………….. Part 3.