Stressed out because life feels uncertain? T.D. Jakes offers his best advice
Article By Tabitha Houghton // EEW Magazine Inspiration
When life is unstable, honestly, you feel stressed. Despite knowing God and doing your best to stay positive, uncertain times make positivity extraordinarily difficult.
But leave it to Bishop T.D. Jakes, known for motivating millions worldwide with his charismatic preaching, to put an encouraging spin on change and transition and offer his best advice to those struggling with life’s destabilizing moments.
“You’re not supposed to know. Life is a mystery,” said the Dallas, Texas leader during the final episode of daytime talk show, “Steve,” hosted by successful author, comedian and game show host, Steve Harvey. “If you take away the mystery and everything was certain, you wouldn’t need faith. Faith functions best when you don’t know.”
Whether you are going through changes in your workplace, finances, health, relationships, ministry, business, or emotions, Jakes believes God has a specific purpose for disrupting our sense of normalcy. “God often puts us in positions where we don’t know to destabilize us from relying too much on what we know,” explained the 62-year-old.
Even though Christians read in James 4:14 that “you do not even know what will happen tomorrow,” it is human nature to have an expectation of certainty. But Jakes suggests that predictability hinders growth and progress, and stifles creativity.
“If you take away the mystery and everything was certain, you wouldn’t need faith. Faith functions best when you don’t know.”
“The more unstable your life becomes, the more you have to go inside yourself to stabilize yourself,” he said. “You’re strong enough to withstand instability, and if you knew everything, you’d have no room for faith, for discovery, for innovation, because creativity comes in [times of] uncertainty.”
Perhaps you are personally struggling with a difficult transitional phase and it seems that you are alone; Jakes said you are not. Furthermore, he debunked the widely-held view that high-profile, successful people have it easy.
“We have started to believe the illusion that people who look good on camera and people who do amazing things only had amazing moments, and that’s why we have so many haters, because haters feel like it’s not fair for you to have all the good times while I go through all the bad times,” he said.
Jakes continued, “But the reality is, we go through bad times too. We go through heartache too. We go through disappointment. We feel bad. We get depressed. We want to give up. We want to walk away. But there’s something down inside of you that keeps pushing you.”
That something is faith, the sustaining force that keeps hope alive in the midst of uncertainty.