I love the story of David and Goliath. If you want to read it, it’s all found in 1 Samuel 17. Even if you’ve heard the story a hundred times, there are still little obscure details that thrill me when I come across them.

David stumbles into the camp, and it’s a mess. The soldiers of Israel’s army are all focused on how impossible the situation is before them. Some nine-footer with an ego, a shield-bearer and some enormous weaponry is challenging them to a one-on-one fight.

No one will go. Not even Saul, the tallest, supposedly toughest, leader among them (and the one who should, at any cost, be willing to defend his people from potential slavery).

Along comes the scrawny kid, David. And this scrawny kid just happens to have defeated some lions and bears along the way, wrestling out of their jaws the lives of his sheep. He’s young and small, but rugged, tough and fearless.

He convinces Saul to let him go down in the valley to face Goliath with nothing but a slingshot and five smooth stones. He wins, of course.

And for a couple thousand years, we’ve been telling and retelling the story. But I’m not sure we’re telling it correctly. I think we’re telling it as though it’s a complete story.

You are David. You’ve got giants. Gut up, go face’m and take’m down in the power of God! Success!!

Right?

Here’s the problem. Defeating the giant wasn’t the end of a success story. It was the beginning of one.

Bringing down the giant brought David fame.

His fame caused problems with King Saul, which multiplied.

After Goliath, David is on the run, hiding from his enemies, losing his wife…losing his friend Jonathan…losing his mentor, Samuel…losing the safety of the palace…losing his dignity.

Success isn’t about beating giants. It’s about building a life that grows through trials and challenges.

It isn’t until later in his life that David is truly “successful.” Long after the giant had fallen, David finally fought through enough battles to give Israel security for several decades under his son’s regime.

It took a lifetime.

Instead of asking, What giants am I facing? we should really be asking, Am I ready for what’s next?

My favorite part of the story is actually what David says to Saul before he fights Goliath. He recounts his past experiences, and the tale is harrowing…

But David persisted. “I have been taking care of my father’s sheep and goats,” he said. “When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death. I have done this to both lions and bears, and I’ll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God! The LORD who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!” Saul finally consented. “All right, go ahead,” he said. “And may the LORD be with you!”

1 Samuel 17:34-37 NLT

First of all, I love the tenacity. When a lion or bear comes…I go after it!

And further, I catch it by the jaw!

But what I really love is that David wasn’t just being impulsive. He wasn’t there to take a big risk on a whim in hopes of scoring glory before the king. No, David was pointing to his past preparation as the grounds on which he was sure he would have future success.

The Lord, who rescued me…will rescue me…

Everything you’ve been through is preparation for right now. And what you’re going through right now is preparation for what’s next. 

The danger comes when we either worship our past successes as complete stories, or face the future while forgetting the past.

It’s all connected. It’s a life of success that we must be after.

I’m afraid that, all too often, we’re satisfied when the giant has fallen. But it was never about the giant.

It was always about becoming the man God wanted him to become.

What’s it all about for you?

One of the biggest spiritual dangers that Christians experience on this side of eternity is death masquerading as life.

The enemy will promise life, but what it actually results in is death. It was the lie that tricked Adam and Eve, and frustratingly, our sinful hearts continue to fall for the false promises.

That’s why we need to remind ourselves daily of the warning in Proverbs 14:12: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”

Here are four everyday temptations that appear life-giving but will ruin us.

1. INDIVIDUALISM

You see this foolishness at every age, from toddlers to teens to grown adults. Human beings were never created to live life on their own, without authority from God and wisdom from others. While the draw to be self-ruled is very appealing and deceptively life-giving, the biblical promise for a long and successful life is to those who obey their parents (Exodus 20:12) and who surround themselves with wise counsel (Proverbs 15:22).

2. LUST

Adultery, whether fully physical or momentarily emotional, feels life-giving to the sinful soul. It invigorates the senses and makes us feel full, for a moment. Proverbs 5:3-6 says that what is sexually forbidden “drips honey and is smoother than oil.” But in the end, sex outside of God’s beautiful design is as “bitter as wormwood and sharp as a two-edged sword and follows the path to Sheol.”

3. MATERIALISM

Possessions are marketed to us as if they have the power to give life, and because they can be seen and touched, we can feel it. Surround yourself with fine things that indulge the senses and make others envious, and you’ll experience momentary delight. All the while, materialism robs of us life because created things can never satisfy the soul.

4. GLUTTONY

I love how much of creation is edible. Eating and drinking should be done to the glory of God, so in a moment, stuffing your face until you feel sick may feel like a harmless enjoyment of the good things that God intended for us to enjoy. But such logic is delusional. The Bible warns that if your belly is your god, it will lead to destruction (Philippians 3:19), and drunkenness to debauchery (Ephesians 5:18).

Lest you be discouraged or confused, God doesn’t just write up a prohibited list and wait for us to violate it. No, he offers us a life-giving alternative to the empty promises of the world: himself!

(Ephesians 5:18, for example, tells us to be filled with the Holy Spirit instead of wine.)

You see, there is a better, richer and more satisfying life to be found in Christ. There are delights to be known that will transcend anything the world could ever offer.

To conclude, I want you to worship your way through the first three verses of Isaiah 55.

Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live.

God bless

Paul Tripp

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

1. Where should you submit to and seek counsel from the body of Christ on a daily basis?
2. What are some physical pleasures that have a tendency to control your heart more than they should?
3. What are some material things that have a tendency to control your heart more than they should?
4. What practical steps can you take to be filled with the Holy Spirit on a daily basis?

This resource is from Paul Tripp Ministries. For additional resources, visit www.paultripp.com. Used with permission.

I’m never more disgusted with myself than when I continue to practice a horrible habit I hate. There’s hardly anything that frustrates me more. Yet sometimes the habit is so entrenched, I just cannot seem to shake it. Or, just when I seem to be getting victory, the habit grabs me by the throat and pulls me back again.

Of some comfort is the fact that I know others struggle with this same issue. In fact, the great Apostle Paul made this confession: “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate” (Romans 7:15 NLT).

Can you relate?

Here’s the good news: We can have victory. The Bible promises: “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand” (1 Corinthians 10:13a NLT).

Here are five steps to conquer a horrible habit you hate:

1. Eliminate Hesitation

Make a firm commitment to overcoming the horrible habit. No doubts. No hesitations.

Sometimes we don’t overcome because we simply love our horrible habit more than we hate it. Our willpower isn’t enough because we like the feelings or other benefits we get from the habit.

For example, an addict might hate his habit, but not enough to overcome it.

Thankfully, God gives us a choice, just as he said through Moses in Deuteronomy 30:15, “Today I am giving you a choice between good and evil, between life and death. If you obey the commands of the Lord your God…then you will prosper” (GN).

Please be aware that we must make this decision for ourselves—no one can make it for us. And we can’t decide for others.

So, what horrible habit will you decide to overcome today?

It might be a habit of finger nail biting, cursing, cheating, overeating, smoking, drinking to excess, drug abuse, exaggerating, promiscuity, lying, yelling at the kids or others, habitually being late, being short-tempered, procrastinating, criticism, gossip or something else

To overcome, we must first make a firm decision to change and eliminate hesitation.

But willpower is not usually enough. It takes more, which leads to step 2:

2. Envision Victory

After deciding, we must get a clear picture of what our victory will be like.

Too often we focus on the problem, instead of the solution. We focus on the horrible habit instead of the sweet success. We focus on the failure instead of the victory.

Let’s learn from this biblical example: “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize” (Philippians 3:13b-14a).

The metaphor is a runner in a race who has his eyes fixed on the goal. He is straining every muscle as he presses toward the goal to win the gold medal. He is not distracted by anything else.

Runners can lose a race by looking over their shoulder to check on the competition. It slows them down. Likewise, we need to stop focusing on the bad habit, and instead focus on the change we are making:

• Someone losing weight may want to put a picture of a trim person where they can look to a model of what they want to become.
• A person learning to be on time might add some clocks in strategic places.
• Someone learning to speak more kindly might want to think of a friend who is always kind.
• The person wanting to quit wasting time watching TV might want to put a timer by the TV and set it for one hour, stopping when it goes off.

Another great way to envision victory is to talk to people who have quit the horrible habit you want to eliminate. When you do that, they will often give glowing reports of how they feel since accomplishing the goal. For example, the ex-smoker will talk about the wonderful taste of food, the clean smell of the air and the sense of self-respect from whipping a habit which would have cut two to 10 years off one’s life.

3. Enjoy a Replacement

Here’s some bad news: Most will probably never eliminate any bad habits. It is virtually impossible to eliminate a bad habit.

But here’s some good news: It’s a hundred times easier to replace a bad habit with a good one.

Thus, it is vital to have a new activity or habit to fill the void when you start overcoming a bad habit.

For example, Dr. Bill Schmelzer, M.D., offers a suggestion for breaking the smoking habit: In the spot you have your cigarettes, put a pocket sized New Testament. Then when you have the habit-formed movement to reach for the pack, instead you fill your hand with God’s lifesaving Word. Instead of shortening your life expectancy, you take a step to extend it.[1] Then read some of the passages like we have been looking at in this article. This helps one substitute for the muscular habit and puts an extremely positive habit in its place.

1 Timothy 6:17 says, “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (NIV).

God wants us to enjoy life! He is not some sort of cosmic killjoy out to take all the fun out of life. He just wants us to have good things, not the bad. Substitute positive things for negative things.

Other examples:

• Replace junk food with healthy food.
• Substitute kind words for gossip.
• Replace eating with exercise.
• Substitute reading for watching TV.

4. Enlist in a Support System

Though you might do great with the first three steps, you need something more. It is something that you can’t get by yourself. You need a support system.

I am talking about support systems such as:

• An accountability partner
• A mentor or coach
• A Bible study or small group
• Celebrate Recovery (a Christ-centered recovery program)
• Alcoholics Anonymous
• Narcotics Anonymous
• Gamblers Anonymous
• Weight Watchers

These relationships and groups provide great encouragement and accountability. The groups are usually filled with caring fellow-overcomers who know both the bitterness of defeat and the sweetness of victory. There are countless stories of “I did it and so can you.”

For the best support, whenever possible, I recommend you seek out a Christ-centered group or accountability partner. Hebrews 10:25a says, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another…”

5. Engage the Helper

This last step is the most important. It is the help of God to overcome a horrible habit.

As noted earlier, the Apostle Paul wrote about his struggles with bad habits in Romans 7. He speaks very frankly about the fight he has. But he also tells us to place our hope in the help of the Lord:

What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question? The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does” (Romans 7:15, 24-25a NTCE).

The point of this passage is that Jesus helps us when we ask Him to. This extra power is the “secret sauce” of overcoming horrible habits.

Are you aware that A.A. (Alcoholics Anonymous) was started as a Christian organization, built on Christian principles from the Bible. One of them is that you must admit you are POWERLESS to overcome the alcohol addiction. Another is that you must have the help of a higher power. Today that higher power can be anything including a tree, and A.A. has drifted in this area. But the fact is that they are right in the concept of needing God’s power.

This same Apostle Paul also wrote: “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).

Now you might object: “Well that’s Paul. But I’m not sure I could have the same success. I have struggled and fought with my horrible habit and sins and I just can’t seem to overcome.”

But consider Titus 2:11-12 which says, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives” (NIV).

The power of God is available to “all men” as it says here, and of course that is a generic term meaning all people. When we have that gift of God’s grace that brings salvation, we can say “no” to all the horrible habits we hate.

In conclusion, nowhere in this article have I promised that conquering a horrible habit will be easy. Sometimes it is incredibly challenging. But what I am promising is that with these steps it will be far more achievable.

So, get started now. You can do it!

Your thoughts are welcome! Please leave your comment below.

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[1]Zig Ziglar, See You at the Top, p. 286.

Quitters never win and winners never quit was drilled into my mind at an early age. I believed it. I practiced it. I lived it. I only quit one thing in my life before age 18, my high school football team. I quit because I sat on the bench 99.976 percent of the time. Since then, however, I’ve questioned the veracity of that phrase, as catchy as it may sound. And recently I heard a concept that further spurred my thinking about quitting—strategic quitting. What is strategic quitting and why should pastors and leaders practice it? In this post I define strategic quitting and suggest five signs that you need to quit something.

First, a definition of strategic quitting. Strategic quitting is thoughtfully and carefully quitting a program, ministry or initiative that simply is not working, has become staid, is disproportionately sucking up resources, or simply needs to go. In contrast to reactive quitting, quitting when things simply get harder, strategic quitting is not a spur of the moment knee-jerk reaction to difficulty. Rather it is a measured decision carefully made.

It’s a concept so essential that leadership expert Seth Godin even wrote a book about about it, The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit. He says, “Strategic quitting is the secret of successful organizations.”

Unfortunately, strategic quitting isn’t easy because of a phenomenon called the ‘sunk-cost bias.’ The ‘sunk cost bias’ is a mental trap we can easily fall into. Because we have invested so much time and energy into a project, we would feel like a failure if we nixed it. In reality, many such projects need to go. Read more about this bias here.

So what are some benefits of strategic quitting?

Four benefits of strategic quitting…

1. It can release resources (your time, staff or volunteer time, and money) for other projects and initiatives with greater potential for material, spiritual or organizational payoff.
2. It can remove the perpetual drip, drip, drip of regret that has nagged your soul and emotions for months (or even years).
3. It can boost your leadership in the eyes of others when they see you muster the courage to nix that ‘elephant’ that most everybody felt should have gone long ago.
4. It can develop a key quality great leaders embody, humility. It’s humbling to admit that a project you may have started just doesn’t work anymore, or never did.

If you think you may need to strategically quit something, how do you know?

Five signs that indicate you need to strategically quit something…

1. When in your soul you know it needs to go. Perhaps you’ve often wrestled with this ‘thing’ in your mind and you never can seem to get peace about it. Is God saying, “Now’s the time”?
2. When those you trust hint that it needs to go. Have influencers in your circle raised the issue from time to time? Have they suggested that the ‘thing’ needs to go?
3. When in your mind’s eye as you envision it gone you sense deep relief. As you’ve thought about it and imagined it no longer a burden, do you feel like a weight is off your shoulders? How much influence should you allow this subjectivity to play in your decision?
4. When you sense the Lord prompting you to strategically quit. In your quiet moments with the Lord, do you sense Him releasing you from it? Have you spent time praying about it?
5. When you begin to really dislike the ‘thing.’ Perhaps your attitude has soured on it and constantly confessing your attitude doesn’t change it. Maybe this is God’s way of saying, “It needs to go.”

Knowing when to strategically quit can be tricky. Our emotions can powerfully influence decisions, sometimes in the wrong direction. But when your heart, your influencers and the Lord seem to all say, “Stop the thing,” maybe it’s time to.

As you read this post, what ‘thing’ in your ministry or organization came to mind that you potentially need to strategically quit?

If some program or initiative did come to mind, what steps do you need to take to discern if you need to quit it?

This article originally appeared here.

When I was a freshman in high school, I tried out for the varsity basketball team. On the first day of tryouts, the coach ran a scrimmage, periodically sending players into the game to see how they played. When my turn came, I intercepted a pass on the very first play. Then I took the ball the length of the court, skyed over every other player and made the prettiest layup you ever saw.

The coach instantly blew the whistle, stopped the game and called me over to the bench. I was walking 10 feet off the ground. I just knew my shot was so good that he had to stop the game just to tell me. I envisioned that ESPN had called and wanted the footage, and that Sports Illustrated had every intention of running a photo of me on the next cover. The shoe deal with Nike was only a matter of time. So I walked—actually, strutted—to the sideline.

My coach said, “White, that was a great shot. Your form was great; your intensity was great. Only thing is, you went to the wrong basket—but it was a great shot!”

Is there a right and a wrong basket in the spiritual game? Is Christianity the only way to score with God or simply one of many ways? For today’s unchurched person, this is hardly academic. The religious landscape of modern American society can be nothing less than bewildering. Religious groups, sects, cults, movements, philosophies and worldviews abound in incredible numbers and diversity.

Add to this mix one of the most pervasive, fundamental convictions of contemporary American society: All roads lead to God, and to say that one way is right and all the other ways are wrong is narrow-minded, bigoted and prejudicial. What is true for you is true for you, and what is true for me is true for me. Searching for God is like climbing a mountain. Since everyone knows there is not just one way to climb a mountain—mountains are too big for that—each person can choose from a number of paths. All the ideas about God contained in the various religions of the world are just different ways up the mountain. In fact, though different religions have different names for God, the names all refer to the same God.

Is it true that a lot of roads lead to heaven, which means we really don’t have to worry about which road we’re on? Is it true that no person, no religion, no group, no book has a handle on the truth? Is it true that all religions are basically the same and all religious leaders are essentially of one mind so that ultimately all spiritual pursuits lead to the same place? If so, people need not look for spiritual truth. They just need to decide on spiritual preference.

If you embrace the idea that multiple paths lead to God and you turn out to be wrong, the consequences are enormous. So let’s explore the reasons why people hold to this belief:

1. There Are So Many Religions

The sheer number of faiths from which to choose convinces some people that there is more than one path to God. Religious pluralism has existed for centuries, but people have never been exposed to as many faith options as we are today. As the number of religious options increases in one’s mind, the idea that one option represents ultimate spiritual truth lessens. Yet the mere presence of options has little to do with whether a particular faith might be true, nor whether ultimate spiritual truth actually exists. The simple fact is that a test may be multiple-choice, but that does not mean it has multiple answers.

2. The Belief That All Religions Are Basically the Same

The idea that all paths are legitimate is also fueled by the sentiment that all religions are basically the same. Many introductory courses in world religions on the high school and college level stress the common denominators of religion throughout time and culture. While these courses may reveal certain similarities, it is also true that they contradict each other in crucial areas. For example, Christians believe in God, while some Buddhists don’t even teach that there is a God. Christians also embrace Jesus’ claim that He was God in human form who came to restore our relationship with God. Muslims, on the other hand, don’t believe that Jesus was God at all. Christians believe in truth and error, right and wrong, morality and immorality, while adherents to the various forms of New Age thinking contend that there are no absolutes and everything is relative.

You can say that somebody is right and somebody is wrong, or say that everyone is wrong, but you can’t say that everybody believes basically the same thing. That would be intellectually dishonest in light of the facts. If God exists—unless He is some senile, confused, muddled, schizophrenic, unbalanced being who isn’t sure what He stands for—there is religious truth and religious falsehood among the competing views. And the areas of disagreement among those views are not trivial in nature. The nature of God, the identity of Jesus and how we enter into a relationship with God are of paramount importance. To return to our mountain climbing analogy in which all paths lead to the same peak, the truth is that there isn’t a single peak, much less a single idea of what the peak even looks like. Instead, the mountain has many different peaks, which raises a significant question: How do you get to the highest one?

3. The Idea That Sincerity Is What Matters

“It isn’t what a person believes that matters, but how he or she believes it; all that really matters is one’s sincerity.” Something deep inside of us knows, and I think correctly, that the nature of true spirituality is somehow connected with authenticity. But it is one thing to value sincerity and another to make sincerity the lone characteristic of spiritual truth. How you believe matters, but so does what you believe. If you say it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere, you miss a very important point: You can be sincerely wrong. If I have a headache in the middle of the night and I blindly reach into my medicine cabinet, I can sincerely believe I am taking an aspirin. But if I am really taking cyanide, my sincerity will not save me from the perils of the poison I’ve ingested. Sincerity matters, but it cannot be all that matters because sincerity alone cannot alter reality. Therefore, it is not simply the sincerity of our faith that matters but the object of our faith as well. Faith is very much like a rope—it matters what you tie it to.

4. The Belief That No Religious Group Should Think It’s Better Than Any Other

Some people are offended by religious groups who think their religion is better than any other religion. They believe that because God is so big and our understanding is so small, it is nothing less than arrogance and narrow-mindedness for a single religious group to maintain that it holds all truth. To ensure that tolerance of other people’s views exists, one should not claim some people are wrong and some people are right—or that “wrongness” or “rightness” even exist. But let’s imagine a young student who is given a question on a math test in school. The question is: “What is 2 + 2?” The answer, of course, is “4.” But let’s say the child answers “37.” Is the teacher intolerant, narrow-minded and bigoted if he/she corrects the answer?

Everyone must avoid a spirit that persecutes people for their differing beliefs or denies them their religious freedom. But this spirit of tolerance is different from believing all points of view are equally valid. Just because you come to a conclusion about where you should place your spiritual trust does not mean you are intolerant of other beliefs. It does not even mean you deny that some truth can be found in other perspectives. As C.S. Lewis once observed, “If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through… If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all those religions contain at least some hint of the truth.” Returning to our math student, there is one and only one right answer to “2 + 2,” but there are some answers that are much closer to being right than others.

5. They Don’t Believe in Truth

Ultimately, the question is whether people believe in truth, and today many do not. A study by the Barna Research Group discovered that 66 percent of all Americans deny the existence of absolute truth. As Allan Bloom has observed from his years teaching in a university classroom, there “is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of. Almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative.”

The most enduring and accepted definition of truth is the correspondence between our ideas or perceptions, and reality. If I make the statement, “It is raining,” it is true if I look outside and find that it is raining. What is true is that which actually is. The belief in more than one way to God is really a belief that truth does not exist or, even more to the point, that it doesn’t matter. Yet nowhere in life does this match our experience. There is not a single area of life where you can make any choice you want from a wide array of options and achieve the same result or experience. Even a skeptic as noteworthy as Sigmund Freud maintained that if “it were really a matter of indifference what we believed, then we might just as well build our bridges of cardboard as of stone, or inject a tenth of a gramme of morphia into a patient instead of a hundredth, or take tear-gas as a narcotic instead of ether.”

The question, therefore, isn’t “Is there truth?” (there is, and we live our lives by it every day) but “Can spiritual truth be found?”

Perhaps now the most incredible spiritual claim in all of human history can be heard. Jesus said: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Not a way, a truth or a life, but the way, the truth and the life. It is this idea that marks the Christian faith. In the Book of Acts, we read the apostle Peter’s proclamation: “It is by the name of Jesus Christ… Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:10,12).

While there are many religions from which to choose, they differ radically from one another, and choosing where to place your spiritual trust is neither narrow-minded nor intolerant.

Truth exists, and it matters.

If all roads do not lead to God, then a spiritual search will lead you to the scandalous reality of one way. And for the Christ follower, that way is through a person:

Jesus Christ.

Sources

Adapted from James Emery White, A Search for the Spiritual (Baker). Additional sources can be found in the endnotes of this book.

Knechtle, Give Me an Answer.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.

This article originally appeared here.

As leaders we can’t always anticipate what’s around the bend.

Sometimes life just happens—even in the church.

Quality leadership and the kindness of God will help you make it through anything that comes your way.

But in the same way a very difficult situation doesn’t “just happen” (there are reasons and causes), you can’t successfully lead your way through adversity without a clear strategy to follow.

Adversity can hit a church in a wide variety of ways. In just the last couple of weeks, a church let me know they let several staff go due to lack of income. Another church lost their pastor to a moral failure, and still another church is tangled up in a lawsuit regarding a building project.

In some ways a church is like a magnet for adversity because spiritual warfare is in play. I’m not suggesting that you adopt the disposition that there is a “demon behind every problem.” We are all capable of creating our own problems. We do know, however, that the enemy does not want your church or any church to prevail, and therefore champions anything that will short-circuit Kingdom progress.

I pray your church is not going through a tough time, but if it is, the following will be helpful to you.

5-Step Plan to Navigate Adversity:

1) Lean into God, but don’t hide behind Him.

It is possible to hide behind God by over-spiritualizing a problem. You can skirt the real issue by saying, “We’ll just pray about it.” Prayer is essential and is absolutely vital to successfully leading through adversity. But at some point God wants you to get up from your knees and lead the way.

This requires facing reality with openness and honesty. Own the problem and talk about it with your staff and key leaders. God provides the wisdom, favor and power, but we must do our part as well.

2) Rightsize the situation.

Hardship hits us first in the realm of emotion, so we often don’t see the situation clearly.

Our perspective is often skewed by our own human emotion, and therefore it’s easy to unintentionally exaggerate the size of the problem. This usually leads to making a solution seem unattainable.

Rightsizing a situation is accomplished when you avoid emotionally-laden statements and replace them with facts.

For example, a staff member in a large church said to me (referring to his fellow staff members), “Wow, everyone is leaving. What’s going on?” I asked him what he meant by “everyone is leaving” and what he thought the solution was. He was concerned that so many people leaving would hurt morale, and the church would therefore have a hard time rehiring those positions.

I asked him to name the people leaving. There were three. I asked him how many were still on staff. He said 47. So, three are leaving and 47 remain on the team and love their job. Is that right? He responded “yes,” and immediately saw the point. I then asked if he thought they could make three good hires. He smiled and nodded yes. That is the process of rightsizing a problem.

3) Regain clarity of vision.

Difficult situations often derail leaders from the primary vision. There are so many fires to put out, conversations to have and issues to resolve that your time and energy are pulled from the real mission.

It often takes no more than a quiet hour with God to regain the clarity of your vision and get back on track.

Push pause on all the noise of your current troubles and get alone with God. As you pray and listen, write down the vision. It’s unlikely that it changed; it was just hijacked by the difficulties you are facing.

4) Focus on the essentials.

A clear vision requires strategy. A workable strategy is a written plan with a timeline and measurable goals.

Begin with the essentials. What are only the things that must be done to achieve the vision? Ask the question, “How do we focus on strategic steps connected to the vision so that we get through this tough season having made measurable progress?”

5) Take the first step.

At this point you have accomplished several things. You have talked to God and been honest about the situation with other leaders. You’ve gained a clear definition of the problem and rightsized where necessary. You’ve regained focus on the vision and essential steps in the strategy.

Now it’s time to take the first step in your strategy.

As each step is achieved, adjust if necessary and take the next step.

Keep going, and you will make it through the adversity.

This article originally appeared here.