Reaction to Losses

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
2 Corinthians 4:16–17

We live and make plans as though tomorrow will be like today, and then unexpectedly we experience a crisis or loss that alters our course of life and disrupts our lifestyle. God doesn't allow such times to destroy us but to reveal who we are. The initial reaction is often denial, which can last for a minute or all our lives.

Many will wonder, How can this be happening to me?, which is often followed by the angry response Why me? Some try to reverse the loss by bargaining with God and others, but when that doesn't work, they feel hopeless and depressed. From there they either resign and drop out or accept what's happened as part of living in this fallen world.

We can't change what happened, but we can change who we are and come through the crisis a better person.

Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, said, " My depression forced me, at the age of forty-one, to stop and, for the first time, examine my life."

This devotion is an excerpt from The Bondage Breaker Devotional by Neil T. Anderson.

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Neil T. Anderson is the founder of Freedom in Christ Ministries. He began the ministry in 1989 and continues to spread the message of freedom to this day.