When times are tough, we need to be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves, as Jesus said, and that means avoiding some of the foolish decisions we can make out of fear.

 

Do you know what turkeys do when they are frightened by a storm? Then run into a corner, pile up on top of each other, and some are suffocated by the pile up. That’s not a smart thing to do; it doesn’t solve a problem, but exacerbates it.

 

You know, fear of the storms we are facing can cause us to act like a turkey—to run away or to commiserate with each other in our own version of a “pile-up.” In fact, we can talk ourselves into fear and inaction. What do you say to yourself when you’re facing tough times—tough financial times or tough health times or whatever it may be? 

 

David wrote: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer” (Psalm 19:14). Do you think it is acceptable to the Lord when we speak words of fear and discouragement to ourselves? If Jesus were standing there beside you in a body, would you let those negative words escape from your lips?

 

I want to challenge you, as you face the tough times of your life, to determine by God’s grace that you will not succumb to the temptation to voice those words of fear and doubt. We make our difficult situations so much worse by reinforcing them with discouraging words, even when those words are unspoken. In Proverbs we read that death and life are in the power of the tongue, and you can speak words of death to yourself. And again we read that a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver (Prov. 25:11). 

 

As we face tough times, we can choose to either speak words of death or words of life, and when we speak words of life, encouraging words, it is a beautiful thing—like apples of gold in a silver bowl.

 

So, our first don’t for the tough times of life is: Don’t make matters worse by speaking words of death. Encourage yourself with fitly spoken words that encourage.

 

You remember Chicken Little who kept declaring that the sky was falling. You see, Chicken Little jumped to a hysterical and irrational belief that disaster was imminent when an acorn fell on her head. And she spread her fear to her friends as she was making her way to tell the King. Foxy Loxy was then able to manipulate Chicken Little’s friends for his own benefit, because they were operating on false information and out of fear.

 

What do we learn from Chicken Little? Don’t believe everything you are told or everything you read. Learn to be discerning. Often when we’re facing tough times, rumors are running rampant. For example, rumors that your company is being purchased, or they are going to lay off many people, or they are filing for bankruptcy can spread like wildfire through your organization with little if any real proof that they’re true. Then people start making irrational or hysterical decisions about their careers because they believe rumors that have not been checked out.

 

And we have an enemy, like Foxy Loxy, who is ready to move in and take full advantage of us at these times of panic. He uses fear to his advantage, to keep us from trusting God and to keep us under a cloud of discouragement.  

 

So, here’s another don’t when you’re facing tough times: Don’t believe everything you hear or read, especially if it’s bad news. Make decisions based on truth, and after much prayer. 

 

Proverbs 14:15 says, “The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.” Discernment keeps us from believing everything, and causes us to give thought to our steps. I recognized years ago that I tend to jump to conclusions far too quickly and I needed to be more discerning. So I simply began praying for discernment. I highly recommend that you do that as well, especially as you are facing tough times. You need discernment then more than ever. You don’t want to be like Chicken Little, so pray for God to give you wisdom and discernment.  

 

It can be tempting in tough times to stick your head in the sand and live in denial—like an ostrich. To postpone the inevitable by refusing to face the music and make some needed changes. But just because you don’t see the danger coming doesn’t make it disappear. Acting like ostriches is not a smart thing to do. We need to keep our eyes and ears open and make sure we understand all we can about the hard times so we can make good decisions.        You remember Joseph, after he became second in command to the Pharoah, when God revealed to him that there would be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine, he made a strategic plan to save during the years of plenty so there would be enough to eat during the famine. If he had lived in denial and refused to plan for the future, it would have been a tragedy for the whole country, as well as his own family. 

 

Even during tough times, there are opportunities and possibilities which you’ll miss if you’re sticking your head in the sand. Proverbs 20:13 says, “Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread.” If you’re facing some financial hard times now, have you been keeping your eyes open for new opportunities? You know, people still get hired, promotions are still awarded, raises are still given even in tough times. But if you’re not looking for those opportunities just because they are few and far between, you could be missing out on some good things. So, another don’t is, Don’t stick your head in the sand and hope it will go away.

 

Also, it is during these tough times that we can truly grow in our knowledge of God and in learning to trust him at a deeper level. The Psalmist wrote: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes” (Psalm 119:71). Think in your own life: Is it not true that when you have gone through some tough times, you look back and see that it was actually good for you, because you learned to trust God. Oh, you wouldn’t want to do it again, but you can say with the Psalmist that it was good for you.       

 

Have you noticed when times are tough how easy it is to preach doom and gloom, to listen to others talking about how tough times are, and before you know it, you’re just waiting for the worst to happen, expecting the worst, and then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. We can start to behave like old buzzards, who live off dead things and are totally focused on bad stuff.

 

So, here’s another don’t for tough times. Don’t get sucked into the doom and gloom attitudes. Refuse to focus only on the negatives and fail to see the good things around you. Ephesians 4:29 exhorts us not to let any unwholesome talk come out of our mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs. Well, talking about how bad everything is won’t build anyone up, will it—including yourself!           

 

When we become fixated on how bad things are, we aren’t thinking about moving forward. We aren’t casting all our care on the Lord; instead we’re carrying it all ourselves and becoming overwhelmed by it. I talked about avoiding the ostrich tendency—to stick our head in the sand and live in denial. But the opposite of that is to think and talk about the tough times so much that we discourage ourselves and we tear others down by our negative talk.    

 

Our thought life controls our words, our attitudes, and our actions. So, if we allow our thoughts to dwell on the problems, without taking constructive action to make some needed changes, then we are driving ourselves right into a give-up attitude and that steals our joy and causes depression.   

 

Also, much of that kind of thinking is imagining what is going to happen. For example, you hear rumors about layoffs, and you imagine that you will be laid off. That is untrue thinking—dwelling on something that you do not know to be true. 

 

We are taught in Philippians 4:8 to think about things that are true, not things we imagine or speculate could be true. So, when your mind starts to be bombarded with these untrue thoughts and imaginations, you have to drive out those wrong thoughts by replacing them with right thoughts.

 

As we face tough times, we need to be like the eagle, who prepares for the storm that is coming. Instead of flying off and trying to escape it, he uses the winds of the storm to fly higher and higher until he is above the storm. While others merely weather a recession or a tough financial time, we have the ability as believers in Jesus Christ to rise above it.           That could take different forms—like expanding your job potential by looking outside the box you may have created. Maybe it’s time to change your career path, or get more education, or move to a different part of the country where the outlook is more favorable. 

 

This passage from Isaiah is very appropriate for us when we’re facing tough times:

 

Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the way; walk in it” (Isaiah 30:20-21).

 

So, be like the eagle, and use the wind of God’s Spirit to fly above the storm you are facing. He’ll guide you through it and show you the way you should go, if you seek him with your whole heart.

 

So, here are our do’s and don’ts when we face tough times:

 

Don’t be like the turkeys who run from trouble and pile up on each other and some get suffocated.   We should not run away or commiserate with each other in our own version of a “pile-up.”

 

Don’t be like Chicken Little who jumps to conclusions and becomes hysterical and irrational for no good reason—and spreads her fear to those around her.

 

Don’t be like the ostrich who sticks his head in the sand and lives in denial.

 

Don’t be like the buzzard who circles the carcasses and lives off dead things. Don’t be sucked into the doom and gloom around you.

 

Do be like the eagle, who prepares for the storm that is coming and uses the winds of the storm to fly higher and higher until he is above the storm.

 

You know, the better you know God, the more successfully you will handle life’s tough times. When you are assured that he is good, he is love, he is sovereign, he is all powerful—he is everything he is, the great I Am—then the tough times of life take on a totally different perspective. They are in his hands, and we are in his hands, and we can say with the song writer, “Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, It is well with my soul.”