When Life Goes Off The Rails

What do we do when things in life don’t go the way we expected? How do we react when things do not go the way we expected? Life is full of “off the rail” moments - John 16:33 There is no one here who can escape the problems of life that come up in a way that interferes with our lives as we intended. •    Illness and Injury •    Persecution •    Job or Financial Situations•    Marriage problems •    Natural Disasters •    Death Following Jesus will cause some “off the rail” momentsLuke 8:22–25 Matthew 8:23–27 Mark 4:36–41 Following Jesus does not keep us from life's problems. Many great believers doing great things for God have suffered and even died from the sicknesses and difficulties of life that everyone else experiences. And these scary and tragic events in life hurt just the same. When life goes “off the rails,” our faith in Jesus can be tested. The disciples panicked... but Jesus was calm. In this they did right . . . when we are fearful or hurting,  1 Peter 5:7 “casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” We accuse God of not caring about us, but really it is the other way around. The truth is that Jesus knows what is best for us, and out of his great love, he will take us through the storms we don’t want. So the ultimate truth is, the disciples did not understand who they had in the boat with them. 1.  The disciples that they had an earthly, but spiritual messiah. They wanted to be the head of his kingdom on earth. 2. They knew Jesus was powerful, but they were still coming to terms with how great his power was. 3.  They did not understand that Jesus was God incarnate. But we have the full picture...Colossians 1:15-17 Would you turn back to Genesis 1:1–2 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This is the God that reigns - completely in control of our off-the-rail moments. We can trust him, and we can obey him.