Tommy Tenney - The Ultimate Comeback: How to Turn a Bad Night Into a Good Day

Copyright 2007 by Hope, Direction and Encouragement Ministries, Inc.

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Scripture quotations noted KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible; Scripture quotations noted NKJV are from The New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers; Scripture quotations noted NASB are from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission; Scripture quotations noted NIV are from the Holy Bible: New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved; Scripture quotations noted NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved; Scripture quotations noted The Message are from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

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First eBook Edition: January 2007

ISBN: 978-0-446-55504-3

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Other books by Tommy Tenney

GOD CHASER series

The God Chasers

Gods Favorite House

The God Catchers

Gods Eye View

Prayers of a God Chaser

(Study guides and workbooks are available for many of these books)

UNITY series

Gods Dream Team

Answering Gods Prayer

Gods Secret to Greatness

COMPASSION series

Chasing God, Serving Man

Marys Prayers and Marthas Recipes

FAMILY series

How to Be a God Chaser and a Kid Chaser

On Daddys Shoulders

DEVOTIONAL BOOKS

The Daily Chase

Experiencing His Presence

Up Where You Belong

GIFT BOOKS

Heart of a God Chaser

God Chasers for Kids

God Chasers for Teens

You Are a God Chaser If

OTHER BOOKS

Trust and Tragedy

Secret Sources of Power

Finding Favor With the King

Hadassah: One Night With the King

Hadassah: The Girl Who Became Queen Esther

One Night With the King

The Hadassah Covenant

To those who proved you can comeback.

To Lisa, Marvin, and Jim.

To Randy, Mike, Charles, Dennis, J. D., Paul, and others like them.

A few lines on a page cannot acknowledge the depth of gratitude I owe to my host of teachers.

Some of them are ordinary men and women who did not even know they were teaching me as I observed them.

Others are extraordinary friends and fellow seekers.

To them I owe the deepest gratitude.

As iron sharpens iron, our conversations challenged my thinking and birthed this book.

Special thanks to Jentzen Franklin, Phil Munsey, Perry Stone, and Edward Miller. And as usual, Larry Walker.

Youre Fired!

H ave you ever had a bad day? You might have even had a bad week! Perhaps a bad month! Or heaven help us, a bad year!

Some of those turbulent seasons of life begin with phrases such as:

Its cancer.

Youre fired!

I want a divorce.

With your record, no one is going to hire you.

Weve done all we can do there is no hope

If you cant make your payment, we will foreclose on your house.

I hate you. I never want to talk to you again!

Statements like these can unleash your worst fears at the very moment when you need your best faith! Ironically, its when things are most hopeless that you most need hope. Its hard to summon up courage to face the future when you feel like a plant pulled up by the roots and laid out to dry.

If you are alive and breathing, at one time or another you will suffer loss or face a crushing crisis. Loss is a part of life, and it happens to all of us in some way or another.

Unjustified loss is even harder to handle! What do you do when life feels unfair? How can you respond and hope for restoration when dreams and aspirations have been ripped from your grasp?

Without getting into a lot of theology, let me assure you that bad news can knock on your door even when you are righteous before God. Ill give you just one nameJob.

Bad news literally seemed to arrive so fast to Job that the messengers of doom had to wait in line at his door. Yet, through it all, Job handled himself in such a way that God praised and blessed him for it.

What do you do when bad news has to wait in line just to talk to you?

The biblical book named for him describes Jobs long list of trouble, tragedy, and calamity and how he survived it all. Yet it begins with the simple announcement that Job was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.

That must mean that all of the calamities and sad events in Jobs life werent necessarily his faulteven if it looks that way. He was sailing through life as the worlds richest man. He was blessed with a happy wife, a large family, and thriving livestock, land, and agricultural businesses. Things just seemed to be getting better and better every day. Then the bottom fell out of his life, and for no explainable reason.

Somehow, it would be easier to comprehend if we could pinpoint some secret sin or inherent character flaw in Jobthen wed know he deserved what he got.

Imagine that you were hired to lead a Fortune 500 company, earning a high six-figure salary with full benefits. Within twelve months business income was up 400 percent over the previous year, your company dominated its market, new products were being successfully launched, and even the unions loved you!

Your picture appears on the front covers of Time, USA Today, Fortune magazine, and Christianity Today (remember, you are a godly leader). All of the major TV talk shows want you to appear, and so do the leading late-night programs. The president is calling you weekly for advice on his upcoming national budget proposal.

Youre FiredNo Reason Given

One moment you are at your desk on the ninetieth floor, then suddenly you are fired! No reason is given, but in only five minutes two security goons have thrown you onto a dirt pile on the sidewalk outside headquarters. All you have left is a torn yellow trash bag filled with a few broken family photo albums. Then things get really bad.

A courier walks over and looks down at your trash bag. Then, in disgust, he tosses a priority delivery package in your lap and walks away with an attitude.

The package holds a mixture of certified lettersall of them bringing more bad news: the IRS has impounded all of your vehicles, seized your house, and frozen all of your bank accounts and assets. The country club has canceled your charter membership, and is even billing you for the years dues after your former company canceled its check for your membership.

While you are reading the contents of the tax indictment, an urgent messenger from the sheriff s department waits to talk to you. We went to your residence to serve federal, state, and local subpoenas and criminal indictments, the deputy says. And Mr. Job, we found all of your children dead. They were suddenly killed in a freak tornado while having dinner together.