Life turns every person upside down. No one escapes unscathed. Not the woman who discovers her husband is having an affair. Not the businessman whose investments are embezzled by a crooked colleague. Not the pastor who feels his faith shaken by questions of suffering and fear. We’d be foolish to think we’re invulnerable. But we’d be just as foolish to think that evil wins the day. The Bible vibrates with the steady drumbeat of faith. God recycles evil into righteousness.

Joseph, saddled with family rejection, slavery, and imprisonment, emerged triumphant—a hero of his generation. Among his final words to his brothers are these: “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.” It’s the repeated pattern in Scripture: evil, God, good. Trust God. God will make good out of this mess.

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You can’t control the weather. You aren’t in charge of the economy. You can’t un-wreck the car. But you can map out a strategy. Remember, God is in this crisis.

Ask God to give you two or three steps you can take today. Seek counsel from someone who’s faced a similar challenge. Ask friends to pray. Most importantly, make a plan. You’d prefer a miracle for your crisis? You’d rather see the stormy sea turned glassy calm in a finger snap? God may do this. Then again, he may say, “I’m with you. I can use this for good. Now let’s make a plan.”

God’s sovereignty doesn’t negate our responsibility. It empowers it. So don’t let the crisis paralyze you. Trust God to do what you can’t. Obey God, and do what you can.

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Calamities can leave us off balance and confused. Consider the crisis of Joseph’s generation as recorded in Genesis 47: “Now there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Canaan languished because of the famine” (Genesis 47:13 NKJV).

Joseph faced a calamity on a global scale. Joseph told his brothers, “God sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you” (Genesis 45:5-7 NKJV). Joseph began and ended his crisis with God. God preceded the famine; God would outlive the famine.

How would you describe your crisis? Do you recite your woes more naturally than you do heaven’s strength? You’re assuming God isn’t in the crisis; he is. Even a famine was fair game for God’s purpose.

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The word goodbye. This word may be the challenge of your life. How does a person get through raging loneliness, strength-draining  grief? The rest of the world has moved on; you ache to do the same. Take heart. God has served notice. All farewells are on the clock. “The Master himself will give the command. Archangel thunder! God’s trumpet blast! He will come down from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise. Then the rest of us who are still alive at the time will be caught up with them into the clouds to meet the Master. Oh, we’ll be walking on air. And there will be one huge family reunion with the Master. Reassure one another with these words!” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 MSG).

Revelation 21:4 promises, “He will wipe every tear from our eyes.” Isn’t this our hope? God has promised a restoration of all things. And that includes you.

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Colossians 3:13 says, “As Christ forgave you, so you also must do.” Really, God? Begin the process of healing. How? Keep no list of wrongs. Pray for your antagonists rather than plot against them. Hate the wrong without hating wrongdoers. Turn your attention away from what they did to you to what Christ did for you. Outrageous as it may seem, Jesus died for them, too. If he thinks they are worth forgiving, they are.

Does that make forgiveness easy? No. Quick? Seldom. Painless? Forgiveness vacillates. It has fits and starts, good days and bad. Anger intermingled with love. Irregular mercy. We make progress only to make a wrong turn. Step forward and fall back. But it’s okay. As long as you’re trying to forgive, you’re forgiving. It’s when you no longer try that bitterness sets in. So Keep trying, keep forgiving.

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Vengeance is God’s. He will repay—whether ultimately on the Day of Judgment or intermediately in this life. God can discipline your abusive boss. He can bring your ex to his knees or to her senses. Forgiveness doesn’t diminish justice; it just entrusts it to God. He guarantees the right retribution. The God of justice has the precise prescription.

Forgive your enemies? That’s where you and I come in. “Do not let the sun go down on your anger,” Paul wrote, “and do not give the devil an opportunity” (Ephesians 4:26-27 NASB). Don’t give the devil territory or ground. Bitterness invites him to occupy a space in your heart, to rent a room. Believe me, he will move in and stink up the place! When it comes to forgiveness, all of us are beginners. Stay the course.

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God moves us forward by healing our past. Can he really? Can God heal this ancient hurt in my heart? Of course he can. In fact, God cares about justice more than we do. God reminds us in Romans 12:17 and 19 (TLB): “Never pay back evil for evil…never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God, for he has said that he will repay those who deserve it.”

We fear the evildoer will slip into the night, unknown and unpunished. Escape to Fiji and sip mai tais on the beach. Not to worry.  Scripture says, “God will repay,” not God “might repay.” God will execute justice on behalf of truth and fairness. Unlike us, God never gives up on a person. Never. Fix your enemies? That’s God’s job.

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In 1882 in New York City, Joseph Richardson owned a narrow strip of land, 5 feet wide and 104 feet long. Next door was a normal-sized lot owned by a man who wanted to erect an apartment building. He offered Richardson $1,000 for his plot. But Richardson built a house—blocking the view! Dubbed the “Spite House”, Richardson spent the last fourteen years of his life in the narrow residence that seemed to fit his narrow state of mind.

Revenge builds a lonely, narrow house, space enough for one person. The lives of its tenants reduced to one goal: make someone miserable. And they do—themselves. No wonder God insists we “keep a sharp eye out for weeds of bitter discontent” (Hebrews 12:15 MSG).

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Family pain is often the deepest pain because it was inflicted so early, and because it involves people who should’ve been trustworthy. You were too young to process the mistreatment. You didn’t know how to defend yourself. Besides, the perpetrators of your pain were so large. Your dad, mom, uncle, big brother—they towered over you, usually in size, always in rank. When they judged you falsely, you believed them. All this time you’ve been operating on faulty data.

Decades later these voices of defeat still echo in your subconscious. But they don’t have to! “Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” These are the words from Romans 12:2 (NLT). And 1 Corinthians 13:11—let him replace childish thinking with mature truth. You are not who they said you were. You are God’s child!

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God gives us more by going deeper than we ask. He wants not only your whole heart; he wants your heart whole. Why? Well hurt people, hurt people. Think about it. Why do you fly off the handle? Why do you avoid conflict? Why do you seek to please everyone? Might your tendencies have something to do with an unhealed hurt in your heart?

God wants to help you for your sake. Your family history has some sad chapters, but your history doesn’t have to be your future. The generational garbage can stop here and now. You don’t have to give your kids what your ancestors gave you. Talk to God about the scandals and scoundrels. Invite him to relive the betrayal with you. The process may take a long time—it may take a lifetime. Difficult for certain, but let God do his work.

Read more You'll Get Through This: Hope and Help for Turbulent Times

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