TrUsTiNg GoD wHeN LiFe DoEsN't MaKe SeNsE

By Joel Osteen

In 1958, when my dad’s future looked so bright in the denomination in which he was serving, my sister Lisa was born with a birth injury similar to cerebral palsy. The doctors told my parents that she would never be normal, never walk, and would probably need twenty-four-hour care. Mother and Daddy were devastated.

It was one of the darkest hours in our family’s history Mother and Daddy could easily have become bitter. They could have easily said, “God, this is not fair, Why did this happen to us? Here we are doing our best to serve You, and You allow something like this to occur.

But no, Daddy knew that adversity could be a stepping-stone to something greater. He knew God would not allow a trial without hav­ing a purpose for that trial. Instead of being negative and running away from God, Daddy ran to God. He began to search the Scriptures as never before, and he discovered the God of the Bible in a fresh way—as a loving God, a healing God, a restoring God, and, yes, as a God of miracles. Daddy went back to his church and preached with a new fire and enthusiasm. Beyond that, he and Mother began believing that Lisa could be healed.

Daddy studied the Bible and began preaching messages about hope, healing, and living in victory. He honestly thought the congregation would be thrilled with the message that God wanted good things for His people—after all, who could argue with that?

But, as I mentioned earlier, some people became upset and Daddy eventually resigned from that church. In that dark hour, Lakewood Church was born. God used the adversity to enlarge my dad’s vision,

ushering him into a whole new era of ministry. What the enemy meant for evil, God turned around and used it to His advantage. And in the midst of the struggle, God healed Lisa’s body. To this day, my sister is healthy and well. But I don’t believe any of that would have happened if my dad had not handled his adversities correctly.

Many people immediately respond negatively to adversities and trouble, rather than believing that God can bring good out of the sit­uation. I’m not saving God sends the trouble, but I am saying God will use any adversity you face to take you to a higher level if you’ll just do your part and keep standing strong.

Two Kinds of Faith

In my life, I’ve discovered two kinds of faith—a delivering faith and a sustaining faith. Delivering faith is when God instantly turns your sit­uation around. When that happens, it’s great. But I believe it takes a greater faith and a deeper walk with God to have that sustaining faith. That’s when circumstances don’t change immediately, but you say; “God, I don’t care what comes against me, I don’t care how long it takes, this thing is not going to defeat me. It’s not going to get me down. I know You’re on my side. And as long as You are for me, that’s all that matters.” Sustaining faith is what gets you through those dark nights of the soul when you don’t know where to go or what to do, and it seems that you can’t last another day . . . but because of your faith in God, you do.

When you have that kind of attitude, the adversary doesn’t have a chance with you. Besides, it’s not usually adversities that cause our problems; it’s how we respond to our adversities. You can have a little bitty problem and it can defeat you. On the other hand, I’ve seen peo­ple dealing with huge problems—tragic deaths in the family, incurable diseases, divorce, bankruptcy, and all sorts of other calamities yet they are happy and at peace. They are living in an attitude of faith. They are believing for things to change. They are determined to live in victory!

When you face adversity, you need to remind yourself that whatever is trying to defeat you could very well be what God will use to promote you. For example, when Daddy went to be with the Lord back in Jan­uary 1999, God placed a strong desire in my heart to pastor Lakewood Church. All of the critics said we would never make it, and with good reason. I had never preached before! Ever!

A Willing Heart

I had spent seventeen years behind the scenes at Lakewood managing our television production. Over the course of those years, Daddy tried many times to get me out in public to speak, but I never had the desire to do it. I was comfortable and content working behind the scenes. But about a week before my dad went to be with the Lord, he and Mother were over at Kevin and Lisa’s home eating dinner. During the meal, Daddy said to them, “I’m going to call Joel and ask him if he’ll speak for me this Sunday”

My mother laughed and said, “John, you’re just wasting your time. Joel is not going to get out there and speak in front of anybody.”

(Thanks for that vote of confidence, Mom!)

Nevertheless, Daddy telephoned me at my house. And just as Mother said, I responded, “Daddy, I’m not a preacher. I don’t even know how to preach. You’re the preacher.” I laughed and told him, as I had many times before, “You get up there and preach, and I promise you this; I’ll make you look good.”

We laughed, and I hung up the phone and sat down to eat dinner.

While Victoria and I were eating, Daddy’s words kept flitting through my mind, and with no other provocation, I began to have an overwhelming desire to preach. I didn’t really understand it at the time, but I knew I had to do something. Keep in mind, I had never even pre­pared a sermon, let alone considered standing up in front of thousands of people to speak. Nevertheless, I called Daddy right back and said, “Daddy, I’ve changed my mind. I think I’ll do it.”

Of course, Daddy nearly passed out!

I studied all week and prepared a message, and the next Sunday I spoke at Lakewood Church for the first time. The message was well re­ceived by the congregation. None of us, however, could have imagined that would be the last Sunday of Daddy’s life. He passed away Friday night—five days later.

We had church that Sunday and, of course, the congregation was grieving the loss of my father, their pastor and friend, yet there was an air of confidence in the building. On Monday morning, three days after Daddy’s death, I was at home contemplating all the events that had taken place and spending a little time in prayer. We were to have a special memorial service in Daddy’s honor later that week.

All of a sudden, I felt that overwhelming desire to speak once again. I called my mother and said, “Mother, who’s going to speak this Sunday?”

She said, “Ah, well, Joel, I don’t know. We’re just going to have to pray and believe that God will send the right one.”

“Well, I’m just sort of thinking about . . . maybe that I would like to do it.”

That’s all Mother needed to hear. My mother has an interesting habit. When she is on the telephone and finishes her part of the con­versation, she’s through. She just hangs up. She doesn’t give on any time to respond. So when I said, “I’m thinking about speaking,” she jumped right in and said, “Oh, Joel, that would be great. I can’t wait to tell the people. We’ll see you later.”

Click. The line went dead.

“Now wait a minute!” I said. “I said I was thinking about speaking. I didn’t say I was going to do it.”

Too late; Mother was already long gone.

Well, that’s just my mother, I thought. I can always back out on her. It’s not going to hurt her feelings. She’ll forgive me.

Two days later, at the memorial service for my dad, and in front of eight thousand people, Mother turned around and said, “I’m so happy to announce to you that my son Joel will he speaking this Sunday”

And I thought, Dear God, now I’m stuck!

Later that night, I was watching all the news reports about my dad. The Houston media gave Daddy glowing tributes as they reported his passing away. I was about to turn the television off and go to bed when I heard a newscaster say one final thing about Daddy’s memorial ser­vice.

“And by the way,” the news anchor announced, “Osteen’s son Joel will be ministering this Sunday”

I said, “All right, God. I got the message. I’ll do it.”

So I wasn’t surprised when after Daddy went to be with the Lord, almost every subsequent media report discussed how Lakewood Church had little chance of surviving. They talked about how we would never make it. The naysayers were quick to point out that no large church with a strong, dynamic leader such as my dad had ever survived after the death of that leader. One article specifically opined, “The worst thing that could happen is for one of the sons to take over.
I quipped to Victoria, “Now I could understand that if they knew my brother, Paul, but they don’t even know me!”

As much as I tried to make light of the reports, the words still stung. There I was, trying to get my nerve up to speak, trying to build my confidence, and the media were already predicting our church’s demise!

I knew I had to make a choice: Would I believe God or would I be­lieve the negative reports? I decided not to dwell on public opinion or popularity polls. I refused to let those negative reports poison my heart and mind. I declined to listen to anyone who seemed intent on talking me out of fulfilling my destiny. More important, I knew God had raised up Lakewood Church to be a beacon of hope for more than forty years, and He wasn’t going to let it go down the drain just be­cause Daddy had graduated to heaven.

Interestingly, the naysayers predicted that we’d be doing well if we merely maintained the status quo. But God had other plans. Lakewood continued to grow, and in 2003, Forbes magazine named Lakewood Church “the largest church in America,” with twenty-five thousand people attending each weekend. And we’re still growing!

If you will handle adversity in the right way, God has promised that He will turn your challenges into stepping-stones for promotion. God wants to do new and unusual things in our lives. He’s looking for peo­ple who will trust Him with their whole hearts. He’s looking for people who won’t limit Him with their small-minded thinking.

You may say, “Joel, I’m just an ordinary person. How could God ever use me? What could I ever do?”

Friend, God uses ordinary people like you and me to do extraordi­nary things. God is not looking for great power. He’s not looking for great education. God is simply looking for a willing heart. God is not looking for away ability; He’s looking for availability. Just give God what you have. If you’ll give God the little that you do have, He’ll take that and multiply it and increase it. And He’ll make more out of your life than you’ve ever dreamed possible. God’s plan for your life is so must bigger and so much greater than you can imagine.

I’m convinced that one day we will look back at what we consid­ered to be the worst thing that could happen to us, and we’ll realize that God used even that time of adversity to refine us, mold us, shape us, and prepare us for good things to come. Interesting, isn’t it? Ad­versity often pushes us into our divine destiny

And sometimes we need a push! Had God not pushed me out of my comfort zone, I would probably still be behind the scenes today God wants us to constantly be growing, and sometimes He’ll use a little adversity or some tension to get us moving forward. He will allow pres­sure to push you, to stretch you, to get you out of your comfort zone. He knows just how much you can take, and in your times of distress, keep in mind, God is enlarging you. The struggle is giving you strength. Furthermore, God knows the gifts and talents that He has placed within each one of us. He knows what you are capable of, and He’s going to do everything necessary to get you into your divine destiny. You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish when God puts a little pressure on and you get out of that safe zone and step over into the faith zone.