love through thick and thin. Show by your words and deeds that God gives us one another to be the means for His love and kindness to flow. 7 Encourage your guests to ask God’s Spirit to reveal more of their sin through their problems (Psalm 139:23–24). We can liken our spiritual hearts to a cup of water. The circumstances of life, whether good or bad, affect our hearts. When you bang a cup of water, the water splashes out. When life’s events bang our hearts, the content of our hearts spill out. The hard and heavy unchangeable things of our lives actually reveal the content of our hearts. These hard things can reveal a strong and robust faith; they can also reveal the sins of pride, worry, living like a spiritual orphan, self-righteousness, bitterness, and anger. Help your clients see that the hard things in their lives can actually reveal sins that weigh them down and oppress them. When sin is discovered, your clients can repent of their sin, run to the cross, and experience the joy of God’s freedom and forgiveness (1 John 1:8–9; Psalm 32, 51). 8 Encourage your guests with the truth that God is making them more like Jesus through their problems (Romans 5:3–5; 8:28–29; Philippians 3:10; James 1:2–4). When we suffer for any reason, even because of our own sinful choices, God has an amazing ability to use our sufferings to refine us and make us more like Jesus. The Lord will trade our sorrows for His joy. Not a bad exchange. 9 Help your guests worship the Lord in the face of their problems (Habakkuk 3:16– 18). The prophet Habakkuk questioned why God was allowing His people to worship idols and to willfully sin. God answered Habakkuk’s complaint and assured him that He was doing something about Israel’s disobedi- ence—He was sending Babylonians to invade the land. This created quite a crisis of faith in Habakkuk’s heart. By the time you get to the end of the book, Habakkuk is more overwhelmed by the majesty and glory of God than he is by the soon-to- invade Babylonians. So at the end of chapter 3, Habakkuk declares in so many words that no matter what happens, even if the entire economy and infrastructure of Israel collapses, he will still worship God and rejoice in the God of his salvation. 10 Encourage your guests to serve the Lord even while struggling with their problems. Doing Kingdom work will help them develop a King- dom perspective (Luke 12:32), gaining an under- standing that this life is not the final chapter. God will one day right all wrongs and make everything new (Revelation 21:4–5). In the meantime, we are steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labor is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58). These 10 strategies are grace-filled remedies for the people of God. However, each strategy opens up a window of opportunity to invite unbelieving clients to cry out to Jesus for His salvation. For our believing clients, a creative and wise application of these 10 strategies will help them joyfully discover that even the unchangeable things of their lives will change because they as individuals have been changed by the Lord at the very core of their being. Our clients will rejoice in the truth of Philippians 1:6—the Lord will keep His promise and perfect His good work of grace in their lives until the day of Christ Jesus. Ĩ 28 WWW.AGRM.ORG MAY/JUNE 2017 Help your clients see that the hard things in their lives can actually reveal sins that weigh them down and oppress them. Bob is executive director of Whosoever Gospel Mission in Philadelphia. Contact him at remberger@whosoevergospel.org.