What to do on the Worst Day of your life by Brian Zahnd.

It is a miracle I even got this book when I did. I had pre-ordered a different book by Brian Zahnd and because I did this, Amazon suggested I order this book while I wait for the other book. I didn’t even read the title or about the book, I just clicked yes (because I have a book buying addiction on Amazon)

The day my Aunt passed away I received a packaged on my door. To mentally and physically exhausted to open it and see what it was I threw in on my counter. The following day I decided to open this little box, and to my surprise I scanned the words on the front page over and over. How did Amazon know this is the worst day of my life? I couldn’t figure out why I had gotten this book–then when I checked my Amazon account it all clicked. I had ordered this book the week prior never knowing what the days ahead held for me.

This little 138 page book has been a life changer.
Brian tells the story of King David and uses his experience as a pattern to follow in ten chapters.
1) Weep
2) Don’t get bitter
3) Encourage yourself in God
4) Get a word from God
5) Reorient your vision
6) Regain your passion
7) Attack
8) Recover all
9) Celebrate recovery
10) Give to others.

I got chapter one down real well, it is my speciality so there wasn’t much life changing happening in chapter one…but the chapters to follow the Holy Spirit used to speak into my life.

Brian constantly pushes you into the goodness of God, to continue building our lives in hope of the victory of Christ over the grave, yet he acknowledges the demonic reality of this broken world.

“Let hope paint a new picture on the canvas of your imagination. Your vision will give you the courage to face tomorrow with new energy and strengthened resolve. With something as simple a HOPE-oriented vision, you are on the road to recovering all.” pg. 69

“Some of you have just been beat up by the Devil. You’ve been afraid, you’ve been hit hard, you’ve been knocked down, and it’s painful. But now it’s time to get mad. Don’t just lie there and let the devil laugh at you. Get mad, get up, and begin to fight. I’ll tell you a secret: the devil is counting on you not getting back up, because if you do, it changes everything. Satan is hoping you will stay passive, because passivity is not an attribute of the victorious Christian life.” pg.78

Though this book as a whole was challenging and encouraging, there was one main theme for me personally that was instrumental.

Victory.

A vision of Victory.

The Holy Spirit really opened my eyes to see I didn’t have a vision for my life the way God has for me. Victory is our destiny when our names our written on the palm of the hand of our Maker.

Though life may be hard year after year, that is not his destiny of my life. A life of defeat and negative thinking, that something bad is about to happen around the corner is NOT his desire or heart for my life. But when year after year after year it becomes one thing after another I easily slipped into this pattern of thinking and living without evening realizing it.

Subtlety, Satan’s speciality.

This book was used to shatter my negative cycle.
To be honest, though I never uttered these words out loud I believed them in my heart, that God was not for me.
As hard as it is to write this, it took the Spirit shedding light onto this false mindset to break this negative cycle that had become a normal thinking pattern in my life.
I was in a cycle of survival, not living…I had lost all vision that God had for life.

“Human beings are mysterious creatures who are powerfully affection by vision. We are designed in such a way that we will move in the direction of what we see. Your vision is your future, and your vision in your imagination. You need an imagination inspired by the promises of God, and you need to develop a vision of victory. You need the eye of the eagle. The eagle builds its nest high atop a mountain or tall rock. From there, it spies out the prey; its eyes observe from afar. Do you have the eye of an eagle? can you see from afar? Can you see into the distant horizon of your future to view the glorious things that God has prepared for you? God has not called you to be a chicken pecking around in the barnyard of the status quo, never seeing anything but the dust of Old McDonald’s farm. God has called you to mount up on the eagles wing’s of faith and soar above the storms. God has given new creation man the eye of the eagle to behold destiny at a great distance.” pg 60

God is for me.
This is a promise written is his scriptures.
God longs for victory and redemption of all things in this broken world.
He is our great God, a redeemer who turns mourning into dancing and ashes into beauty.

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. (Ephesians 3:20-21)

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