Life lessons from a heart attack!

Life lessons from a heart attack!

Some of you who don’t regularly attend may not have heard that I had a heart attack on April 14th at about 12:15 a.m. I awoke to terrible pain in my back which of course I thought was a muscle spasm. Well the pain was so bad that I ended up going to Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park where I was confronted with the fact that I was having a heart attack. I ended up getting an Angiogram and a stint was put in. I certainly did not expect a heart attack at my age, 42 but that is exactly what I had. What I would like to share with you this month is some things that God has reinforced to me through the heart attack. God never waists any trials in our lives but always uses them for our good to make us more ready to be with him in eternity. So here goes.
The first lesson that was enforced to me is that life is really a vapor. I have begun to look at people differently since I had my heart attack and I had a friend that died of one at age 44 two weeks before I had mine. I now am more in tune to the fact that every ones life is in danger, life can come screeching to a halt in a moment. None of us are really secure in this life. James reminds us in 4:14, “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.” This means that we can not take life for granted. We must focus on our lives in light of God and eternity. We must live every day to please God because none of us has a guarantee that we will have tomorrow. If you have never placed your faith in Christ don’t delay you may not have another opportunity. If you have placed your faith but are really not living for Christ don’t delay. You may not have tomorrow.
The second lesson that was enforced to me is that God is in control of our circumstances and we must learn to trust what he allows in our lives. The safest place that we can be is in the hands of our God. There was the moment when I was told that I was having a heart attack. Now I had a choice at that moment, I could panic or remind myself that I was in God’s hands. I chose the latter and I was ask why I was so calm? I had the opportunity to tell those who were working on me that “for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.” (2 Timothy 1:12b). God has not promised us a trial free life but he as promised that we will not be abandoned or forgotten when we are going through trials. They are an opportunity to know God better as we experience his grace in the midst of them.
If it is true that God has not promised us a trial free life than the third lesson that was enforced to me is that our hope is not in this life, but is in the life to come. Hope is an expectation of good. If we can not expect a life free from trials than our hope should not be in this life. God has promised because Jesus has been raised from the dead that we will also be raised, not to this same mortal life but to life immortal, where we will experience the bliss of eternity with God. Our faith connects us to this hope, and this hope will not disappoint us, because God has given us his Spirit who assures us of sonship in spite of the trials of this life. (Romans 8:18-27)
The more we can be people of faith who focus on the hope that God has promised us the more confident we will be in spite of the trials of this life. You see, peace in our circumstances comes to us, as we focus on the promises of God not the circumstances of life. That is why Christians around the world are victorious in spite of their sufferings they focus on their eternal hope not their sufferings and so should we. That is the central lesson of Hebrews 11 is that the people of faith were people who focused on hope to come not on the things of this life and we can be the same kinds of people as we focus on hope.
If everything that I have said so far is true and it is then the forth lesson that was enforced to me is that, the only thing that gives us certainty is the gospel. Therefore the gospel needs to be the source of certainty for our lives and the main message to those around us. No other beliefs can give certainty because they are based upon works. Only the gospel gives us certainty because it is based upon the promise of God and the work of Christ. This gives us immense confidence God will not let us down because if he did he would not be God. Those around us, who think that they will get to heaven by their good works, can never know for sure that they have done enough. All other messages give false hopes because they are not based on reality. The gospel gives us a genuine hope because it is based upon the fact of Jesus’ death and resurrection and ascension to glory. People live their lives trusting in their good works but they do not know that God will not except their good works because that would be a rejection of his own Son and God will not reject his own Son.
The final lesson that was enforced to me is that someday I will have a new body. This is the central hope of the gospel. If this body dies than I go to be with Christ to await the resurrection at the 2nd coming of Christ. One of the reasons that we should long for the day of Christ’s return is the hope of immortality. Death will dog our footsteps until Christ comes back than death for us as believers will be destroyed forever and we will spend eternity with Christ in a new glorious body that will never die.
I am thankful that the doctor thinks that my prognosis is good, but this is not my hope. I would have just as much hope if the doctor said my prognosis was bad, because this heart attack has enforced to me that nothing in this life is my hope, only what I have in Christ is my hope and I hope it is yours as well.

Blessings Pastor Wenner

How to face Trials.

 

The natural tendency is to become bitter when we face trials. Yet if we are really honest and look at life honestly then we will recognize that everyone faces trials of many kinds. It is not whether or not we will face trials, but when. In some ways we struggle with this topic because we think that it is God’s job to keep us from trials. The reality is that God has not promised to keep us from trials but has promised to keep us in trials. We will struggle in the Christian life if we expect things that God has not promised.

God has not promised that we are not going to have financial setbacks. God has not promised that we are never going to get sick. He has not promised that our loved ones are going to live forever. He has not promised that we will meet Mr. or Mrs. right. He has not promised that all of our dreams will come true. What he has promised us is that he has guaranteed our eternal destiny with him in heaven and that he will give us the grace to face any difficulty that we go through. He has promised that he will continue his work in our lives until the day we are taken by death, or taken by Christ at the 2^nd coming. He has promised that if we will seek him we will find joy no matter what our circumstances. Paul said this so well when he said, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Php 4:13) In the context Paul is talking about contentment.

James tells us how to handle trials, He says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have [its] perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.” (Jas 1:2-6 NAS95)

The first thing that James says to us is change your attitude about your trials. You can determine that you are not going to let the trial steal your joy and that comes because you determine not to have an expectation that is unrealistic. James is telling us to expect trials if we expect that we are going to have them when they come they will not throw us. God’s love for us is not determined by whether or not we have trials. God’s love for us is evidence because he sent his son to die for our sins. (1 John 3:16)

The second thing that James tells us about trials is that we should focus on the results that trials accomplish in our lives. What according to James do our trials accomplish? Trials test our faith and prove that our faith is genuine. Trials produce perseverance and perseverance perfects our faith. It assures us that we are God’s child when we continue in spite of the difficulties that we face. Peter says the same thing in 1^st Peter chapter one, “6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, 7 so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.”

The Third thing that James tells us is that when we face trials we should ask God for wisdom when trials come. Many times we struggle with trials because we do not understand the reason, or even what God wants to do in our lives through the trial. James says that if we lack wisdom in our trials we should as God and he will give us the wisdom that we need. God is not stingy he will bless us with wisdom if we will seek him for it, but there is a condition to receiving God’s wisdom. The Condition is faith, and that is a response where we approach God trusting his Character. If we approach God with an untrusting attitude that doubts his goodness we will not receive God’s wisdom. The key to facing trials then is faith when you come right down to it. Do you trust God’s goodness and intention or do you become angry at him. Anger at God is not faith.

Listen to Horatio Spatford’s faith when he faced the death of his two daughters in a shipwreck. He wrote these words of faith,

“When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, It is well, it is well, with my soul. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control, That Christ has regarded my helpless estate, And hath shed His own blood for my soul. It is well, with my soul, It is well, with my soul, It is well, it is well, with my soul.”

 

Blessings Pastor Wenner