What to Do in Bad Moments

Bad moments are mostly unexpected, unappreciated, and often create confusion in our lives. When you are embarrassed, experience a loss, fail at something, get robbed, are misunderstood, etc., those bad feelings rise up and bring us negativity and trauma. The length of time the bad moment lasts will depend on the habits you’ve made in responding.

Pause and Think

Many times the Bible tells us to “think”. Philippians 4:8, “Think about these things” is the command. Thinking changes your feelings. Thats right! It’s not what people did to you that really creates the difficult emotions. It’s what you think about what they did. If I have experienced a loss, I can choose to think about God’s faithfulness. If I experience a failure, I need to think about God’s unconditional love and acceptance. If I’m misunderstood, I can remind myself that misunderstanding is not a life sentence. I can correct, retry, and clarify to create understanding. The key is choose to think and what to think.

Turn your bad moments into learning, growing, and victory!

Speak Faith and Positivity

Years ago when I experienced a failure, I would immediately say something negative to myself. “You have done it again; you will always blow it.” These statements are not fact. They are emotions being expressed in words. I still feel bad after failure, but I have learned to say something like, “Praise God it’s not worse. How can I fix it? Tomorrow will be better. What can I learn from this?” This refocuses my life away from the bad moment towards a solution.

Act Positively

If something relationally unpleasant has happened, we tend to avoid the person or the situation. Bad move. Take a positive action towards that person. Have you ever heard of turning the other cheek? Have you ever heard of loving your enemies? Whenever you take action, you feel much more in charge or control of yourself and the situation. To do nothing just avoids the problem and does not solve it. Worse, it sets you up to live with consistently wounded feelings. That leads to a pattern of just avoiding people, especially difficult people.

Pray

Practice James 1:5. Ask God for wisdom and believe that you receive it and then just go on with life. Ask God for insights into what has happened. Ask God for faith to do something about it. Ask God for supernatural answers to issues you don’t understand. Whatever you need in a difficult situation, ask God! He is wise, and He gives wisdom without judging us for the failures.

Turn your bad moments into learning, growing, and victory!

Dennis Heppner grew up in Canada and was called to ministry as a young boy. Dennis and his wife Denie, who was also called to missions as a child, pastored 4 churches in Canada, but in 1987 the door opened to come to the Philippines as missionaries. They brought their 4 eldest children with them and the kids grew up here. In 2006 they adopted Emma Rose, a special Filipino treasure and a gift from God to their family.

Dennis has been a missionary evangelist in Asia for 25 years. He was the director of LIFESCHOOLS of ministry and pastored 3 churches in the early years of his ministry based in the Philippines. He is currently the founder and President of Developing Effective Leaders (DEL), superintendent of Church of God West Asia, and the founding and lead Pastor of the vibrant, growing Church of God Makati.

Dennis and Denie and their whole family, including Josh and Melody who live in Canada, are committed to missions, leadership, and the call of Christ.

Read more of Ptr. Dennis’ articles HERE!