Throughout life, we all face challenges. These challenges could be at work, home, friends, relationships, or practically anywhere in our lives. Challenges are not always fun, nor are they easy to get though. There is also a built in part of us that makes us feel like we have to walk though these challenges of life on our own. As Christians, we should have a different way to get though challenges than the rest of the world. We are always being watched and people want to see how we walk though hard times.
Over and over again the Bible tells us that God is with us. God says in Deuteronomy 31:6
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
We know this in our heads to be true in the times of prosperity, but what happens to us when we go though the hard times?
Some facts about challenges that seem to be helpful are that everyone has challenges, and even though they might seem insignificant to someone else, each of them impact the person in the same way. This might mean that someone is short on money, which is not a big deal to their friend. On the other hand, their friend might be struggling with relationships. In both instances, the persons have challenges. Neither of these are bigger than the other, but they impact them differently.
Sometimes when we face a challenge that seems to big we begin to embrace fear and worry instead of the Creator who is bigger than all of our problems. We run to fear because we so badly want to control our situation, eventhough God says that we should be courageous. One thing that is forgotten is that God is not up in Heaven running around trying to figure out what to do to fix the problem. God will put us though challenges that require us to lean on Him rather than ourselves.
Challenges are also what you make them. This is illustrated by groups that have done studies on cancer patients. The patients that go into the situation with a positive attitude have a much higher survival rate than those who don’t. It can be hard to be positive, but it will change your life dramatically if you decide to have a positive outlook.
When we get hit from all sides at the same time with problems and challenges, we have a tendency to become overwhelmed. The solution to this is to deal with one problem at a time. If your current problems are relationships and not having a job, see where they fall on your priorities list. If your wondering about your priorities, Proverbs says that it should be family, friends, then work. God shouldn’t be just a priority in your life, but the center of your life.
Don’t be afraid to reach out to others to help you along the way. Life is hard when we don’t have friends around to lift us up, so seek out other Christians to walk along with you. God absolutely helps you out, and often the way he helps is though community with other believers. We as Christians should be helping each other carry our burdens, as long as they are burdens that others can carry (or need to help carry).
Life is tough, but our God in Heaven is tougher than anything we could ever face. We need to surrender our will to His will, and allow Him to have full control of everything in our lives. If we can do this, God will surely bless us more than we ever have been. He can only do amazing things in the areas that we give him total control.
Take a self inventory and see where in your life you might not be giving up to God. He always knows what is best for us, and sometimes putting us though challenges helps us to see what areas we need to surrender to Him. We can’t be servants to the Creator if we are still trying to be our own master.
May God continue to bless each of you!
Dive Deep,
KC
