Facing life’s challenges

Life is an ever changing cycle that brings challenges to our life’s. Some of them are welcomed because they bring joy and happiness, but others brings us to the verge of desperation and despair.

The question that we need to ask ourselves is; How do we face the challenges of life?

Let’s read the following passage from the book of Philippians in which the Apostle Paul explain how he has learned to deal with life challenges:

“How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but you didn’t have the chance to help me. Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Even so, you have done well to share with me in my present difficulty.”

Philippians 4:10-14 NLT

The Apostle had learned not to despair in the most difficult times of his life. When we read the passage we feel like he never had any anxiety or stress but in reality he learned it little by little (v 11). Paul was chained in a Roman prison when he wrote the letter. This is a developing process that will discover our flaws and inadequacies. Christ uses those moments of trial to shape us, to clean us, to strengthen us. It is through those moments of trials that we get to know who we really are and what God wants to remove and add to us.

There is no better testimony, than staying calm when everything around us seems to be falling apart, because we are living in the assurance of the companionship of God. Even in the most unjust situations that we could be through, like when your boss assign you something unjust and undeserved but we go through it in peace. We know that if we are in obedience and we are doing what God wants us to do we will see God’s hand working in our favor.

Man is a creature of habits and likes stability, that is the reason why, whenever our circumstances changes we feel lost and desperate. Been able to live a life where you haven’t been able to fulfill your dreams without getting agitated or unhappy is living in contentment. God knows our dreams and longings and His word tells us that He wants to grant us all of our desires.

Psalm 37:4

“Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭37:4‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The secret the apostle Paul wants to share is that if we obey God and we do what He asks us to do, any situation that we face being sweet or sour will work on our behalf. That is what David is saying in the psalm, “delight in the Lord”, in other words stay obedient and follow His instructions and He will give you your desires in the right time and in the right way.

It is possible to live through any difficult situation with a sense of peace if we don’t doubt the presence of God in our lives. It doesn’t matter if it is economical needs, rejection or loneliness.

Must of the time we tend to look to the other side of the fence, we look at someone else’s life and we desire it. But all it takes is to be in that person’s life to realize that is as unhappy as we are. The secret is to surrender our life’s to Christ and not fight. We fight Him because we want everything fast and in our terms. God knows that we have a limited view of our life’s. Who can compete with the almighty, all powerful, omnipresent, omniscient God to define our future?

When we surrender our will, all that happens is that God realigns our life to fulfill His purpose and our dreams at the same time. Just lets think about it, if we let God fulfill His purpose in us, by doing what He design us to be; what better feeling of accomplishment can we get?

What is it that everybody wants? Happiness and fulfillment.

The problem with us is that as we don’t know better, we look to fulfill our lives with things that do not add meaning or purpose to our lives. We waste our life trying to gain what perish, what it is today and tomorrow is gone. Bad relationships, wrong economic decisions, wrong timing in our decisions, all of that is what brings pain and suffering, which God wants to us to avoid if we obey His instructions.

The Apostle Paul learned how to bring the strength and peace of God into his weaknesses. He learned how to wait, and wait in peace. If God promised it, it is done. All we have to do is trust and wait.

Your alternative is to fight Him and be miserable the rest of your life.

Are you willing to put your future in His hands?