Setbacks Only Bring Comebacks
- Sep 28, 2016
- 5 min read
It Ain't Over Yet!
How many of us have had a setback recently? Had something in our lives that may have been unexpected…or even expected and threw our entire journey off course? Let’s define exactly what a setback and a comeback is:
SETBACK - a problem that makes progress more difficult or success less likely
COMEBACK - a return to a former good position or condition
Has something or someone set you back on your journey in life? Has something setback your circumstances to not go exactly as you planned? What’s that saying, ”Three steps forward, two steps back”?
Finally got that new job paying more money AND just sent in the last payment for the car you bought 4 years ago! – TWO STEPS FORWARD
The car just broke down on your first day to that new job you just got! – ONE STEP BACK
Your girlfriend said her cousin could fix your car for you for only $20! – ONE STEP FORWARD
Your son had to go to the urgent care for a sprained arm from football practice AND your insurance doesn’t kick in for another 30 days AND the doctor bill is $135! – THREE STEPS BACK
Proverbs 24:16 says “…for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.” I like The Message Bible’s translation of this verse: “Don’t interfere with good people’s lives; don’t try to get the best of them. No matter how many times you trip them up, God-loyal people don’t stay down long; Soon they’re up on their feet, while the wicked end up flat on their faces.”
What that verse is saying is that ONLY a SETBACK can bring a COMEBACK for those that TRULY believe in God’s sovereignty! It doesn’t say that He will do it for those that believe His word under certain circumstances or for those that believe only on Sunday morning. It says for God-loyal, people that believe, trust and have faith in a Father that will bring them up out of the valley. And it also says that those setting traps and snares for you will get exactly what's coming to them.
Let’s take a look at Esther:
She was happy as can be living at home with her cousin (not uncle) Mordecai. ONE STEP FORWARD.
King sends out an edict that all young women must be taken to his palace, regardless if they want to go or not. ONE STEP BACK
The king’s eunuch Hegai showed favor to Esther while she was in the palace AND she received the favor and love of the King AND was chosen queen over all the other young women. – THREE STEPS FORWARD
Haman hated Jews, esp. Mordecai and had gallows built to hang Mordecai from AND convinced the King to issue a royal edict to have them annihilated AND Esther knew that she couldn’t appear before the king unsummoned to ask that the Jews be spared. THREE STEPS BACK
Esther prayed to God and fasted for 3 days AND was granted her petition to spare her own life and her people AND Mordecai was given all the property and position that Haman had AND he was hung on the same gallows he set for Mordecai…COMEBACK!!!
When we go through those so-called trials after experiencing some good times, God is working on a comeback for us. If Esther hadn’t been taken to the palace, she never would have been in a position to be used by God to deliver her people. The bible is full of men, young and old that have been used by God to do His work and it’s full of women too. Sometimes we’re afraid and we’re scared and we don’t know what’s happening. Everything was going so well and BAM! We get pushed back and it seems like there’s no alternative, no resolution, no way out. It feels like we’re all alone. It feels like God has abandoned us. We shut down and keep everything bottled up inside.
Mordecai spoke so accurately when he said: “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” ~Esther 4:14
How do you know your setback wasn’t meant for the greater good? How do you know those 2 or 3 steps back are actually God’s protection NOT to have you move too quickly into a situation or circumstance? How do you know YOU haven’t come to your position in life for such a time as this?
Sometimes, there are setbacks that seem to last for an eternity. There doesn’t seem to be any comeback on the horizon for you or your situation or circumstance. You’ve been pushing through faithfully and everything has been falling into place according to how it should be and then from out of nowhere...WHAM! You’re faced with a circumstance that there doesn’t appear to be a comeback from. You’re standing in the midst of a situation that you feel there is no “comeback deliverance” from. Your situation can be summed up in 5 teeny tiny words… “It is what it is” and you utter those same teeny tiny words with an attitude because you think God has abandoned you or doesn’t love you or reneged on His promise. I just said these 5 words last Tuesday myself because I was offended about a setback with a new job that was gift-wrapped by God Himself.
Let me give you another definition for the term comeback: a new effort to win or succeed after being close to defeat or failure.
Did you ever stop to think that while that setback appears not to have any comeback solution, which remember now is a “return to a former good position or condition” that God is doing "a new effort to win or succeed after being close to defeat or failure"?
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” ~Isaiah 43:19 NIV
It’s a NEW thing! A new thing that has been birthed from generational setback. A new thing that is birthed from tragic setback. A new thing that is birthed from an unspeakable setback. Let me read it again…”I am making a WAY in the WILDERNESS and STREAMS in the WASTELAND.” God is the Way, the Truth & the Life, amen? He is the living Water, those Streams in the wasteland, amen? God doesn’t waste ANYTHING! He uses any and all setbacks for our good.
Just because YOU don’t see yourself as the “Comeback Kid”, doesn’t mean HE isn’t the “God of Comebacks”. Amen?
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