"I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33
Jesus tells us that we will have crappy days–they are inevitable. If we know they are coming, why do we complain when they get here instead of preparing for when they may come?
Step one to prepare ourselves would be to remember who bad days come from. God is the giver of all good and perfect gifts and Satan, who has free reign over this earth until Christ's return, is the bringer of those bad days. When our car doesn't start or tensions are high in our homes, Satan very well could be using those things to pull us into a slump and away from God. This summer, none of my alarms have worked. I've used three different clocks and set multiple alarms, and none of them have gone off when they were set for. I work at a Christian summer camp and I had an "ah-ha" moment with my clocks. What if the Devil was using my faulty alarms to put me in a bad mood or prevent me from going to camp altogether? What if the reason I had to rush every morning was so he could keep me from being effective in sharing Christ with these kids? So I started in on my next step: Prayer.
When we recognize who is sending this bad day our way, we can then pray specifically and fervently to a God who will hear and will act. After coming to the realization that Satan's hand was at work, I got angry with him and told him to get out and that he had no power here and would not prevent God's work from being accomplished in and through me. Then, I prayed. I prayed that God would wake me up. I prayed for my attitude when I got to camp. I prayed for the hearts of the people I worked with and with the children I was ministering to. However, I did not start praying when things went wrong. We have to be praying and reading God's Word daily to build a relationship with Him and learn more about Him. A true, loving relationship on God should be our goal every single day and not just our "get out of jail free" card.
Lastly, we have to trust that God will make a difference and praise Him when He does. After praying for my alarm clock (that sounds strange, I know), I woke up every day in time to get ready to go. I had to trust that God was going to wake me up when I needed to be up. If I stayed up all night waiting for my time to get up because I didn't trust Him, I would really be good for nothing at camp, and I'm pretty sure it's physically impossible to stay awake for four weeks straight.
During a bad day, I love to praise God for all that He has done for me in that day. When I shift my eyes from my downfalls to His majesty, my attitude completely changes. How can you be a sourpuss when you think about the fact that the Creator of the universe is giving you each and every breath? How can you let Satan get you down when the Victor over the grave has painted beautiful skies and molded amazing landscapes just for you?
I am not saying that God is going to poof away all the bad, because we can't grow in our faith or learn to trust Him if our whole lives progress with no hiccups. He didn't wake me up right when my alarm was supposed to go off, but He did wake me up in plenty of time to get ready for camp. We may not always get the answer or response we want, but God knows exactly what we need and gives us that. We simply have to trust that He is working all things for our good. So don't let those crappy days make you crabby; you have a God who loves you and is doing some pretty cool things for and with you.
