The Solution to Hard Times
Copyright © January 2, 2012 by Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.
All Rights Reserved.
At the beginning of the year 2012 the entire world is being overwhelmed by hard times. For example,
- A large number of the people in many nations around the world, such as Greece, are barely surviving on a day-to-day basis by eating things that those people would have refused to eat just one year ago.
- The Eurodollar is on the verge of collapse. The United States dollar is not far behind.
- Several nations around the world are only a breath away from declaring complete and total bankruptcy. At least two governments within the United States have recently declared bankruptcy as follows:
- Jefferson County, Alabama, which includes the city of Birmingham, Alabama, filed for bankruptcy on November 9, 2011.
- Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the capital of the state of Pennsylvania, filed for bankruptcy on October 12, 2011.
Most people do not understand the implications of a government bankruptcy on the government's prior promises to pay its debts to its citizens and to its creditors. In other words, will those governments default on their retirement payments to their retired citizens? Will those governments default on their payments to their municipal bond holders? What will be the true financial tidal wave of a government bankruptcy?
- Weather conditions in many parts of the world have become devastating and catastrophic. In a variety of different areas many thousands of lives have been lost in less than one day. And there is no way to predict where the next earthquake, flood, blizzard, hurricane, or tornado will strike.
Regardless of what you might hear in the official news broadcasts of a nation, the world is not gradually becoming a safer, more prosperous place to live. The truth is that the world is rapidly becoming a more dangerous and a more difficult place in which to live.
In my opinion there is no global solution to the problems being experienced by all the nations around the world. There are three reasons why there is no global solution:
- In order for a solution to be implemented it must first be created. In the past men have never been able to solve the types of problems mentioned above.
- For a solution to be successful it must be flawless. In other words, nothing can be overlooked.
- For a solution to be successful it must be unanimously supported by all the major nations of the world. This will never occur because each nation only has the best interests of its leaders at heart instead of what is best for the common citizens of the entire world.
Will solutions be proposed by different groups of men? You bet.
Will those solutions be in the best interests of the people who devise them? Without a doubt.
Will those solutions make a few individuals even richer than they are today? Absolutely.
Will the common people benefit from these solutions? No way.
Is there anything that an ordinary person such as you or I can do in order to survive the hard times that are continuing to get worse all around us?
The answer is, "Yes." There is a solution but it is the type of solution that 99.9% of the people around the world will never support or put any confidence in.
The solution is to stop trying to solve your problems yourself. Instead turn your problems over to the only One who can fix everything. Turn your problems over to God. But since man is so egotistic, man believes he can do anything and everything and therefore most men will refuse to accept this solution.
But a few people will realize that only God can resolve the problems they are currently facing. Only God can control their financial future. Only God can control the droughts, earthquakes, floods, blizzards, hurricanes, and tornados. Man can't do anything about these things. But God can. Nothing is too hard for God.
That's all I wanted to say. The reason is because I know that 99.9% of the people who began reading this short article have already stopped reading it and they have moved on to something else.
But for that one person out of one-thousand who is still reading may I humbly suggest that you fall on your knees and that you turn your life and your future over to the One who created you and Who gave you life. He still loves you. He still cares about you. And the hard times you are currently experiencing was the only way He could get your attention focused on Him instead of on yourself. If you can put all your trust and all your faith in your True Father then He will not disappoint you in the long run. But if you are only looking for a fast fix then you are still not trusting God and you are simply trying to manipulate God to do things on your timetable. But if you are willing to be patient, and you are willing to allow God to fix your future at His pace, then when you look back on today several years from now you will probably be amazed at how much better things are for your family at that time compared to today.
"If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed,
and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.
And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted,
and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it." Jeremiah 18:7-10
"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray
and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven
and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14
How can you seek the face of God? Where should you look first? Is God hiding from you or is He in plain sight? God is not hiding and He has revealed Himself to mankind in the Holy Bible. Everything that God wants you to know about Him, and about His rules and regulations for worship, and about His rules for dealing fairly with one another, are all contained on the pages inside the Holy Bible. When most of the people within a nation do what the Holy Bible says then God sees from heaven and He blesses that nation and they prosper. When most of the people within a nation pretend to be religious but who actually follow their own rules and regulations instead of obeying God, then God sees from heaven and He withdraws His support from that nation and the nation experiences serious hard times, droughts, floods, blizzards, hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, and economic disaster.
How can we turn from our wicked ways? How is wicked defined? Does each person get to individually decide what is right and what is wrong? Does the government of a nation get to define what is right and wrong for its citizens? If a government passes a law that says it has the right to execute specific members of its society without any type of trial then does that law make those deaths right? (Two Examples: The World War II Holocaust in Europe by the Germans, and a similar United States "National Defense Authorization Act" in the year 2012.) If a government passes a law that forbids people from praying then does that make praying wrong? (Example: In the United States it is illegal to pray in a public school.) Any nation that relies on its government to define what is morally right and what is morally wrong is at the mercy of that government. The concept of what is morally right and wrong needs to be defined at a higher level than any government. Moral right and wrong needs to be defined by God.
If you are currently being crushed by the hard times then what can you personally do to improve the standard of living for your family? Read the Bible to find out. Begin today. And every day for the rest of your life spend a few minutes each day reading the Bible. Read one, two, three, or four pages every day without fail. Be consistent. Begin on the first page of the first book of the Bible called Genesis. And continue reading, a few pages each day, until you reach the last page of the last book of the Bible called Revelation. Then start over again on the first page. If you will consistently and diligently seek to know God's Will, and you will earnestly try to do the things that God asks us to do, then you will gradually notice a change in your life and in the hard times you are currently facing. And as the weeks turn into months, and the months into years, then you will gradually understand how much God truly loves you and you will see the blessings of God all around you.
The choice is yours. You can continue to try to fix everything yourself. Or you can turn to God and give Him a chance to show you what He can do.
Respectfully,
Grandpappy.
Grandpappy's e-mail address is: RobertWayneAtkins@hotmail.com