I don’t know about the rest of y’all, but I have problems. How silly of me…we all have problems, don’t we? Our days are filled with them! Even if you are having a “great day,” I guarantee you that some little problem has crept up in there somewhere that you had to deal with at work, at home, in your finances, in a relationship, with your wardrobe, with your computer/fancy electronic device that I don’t know how to work/car etc. It seems like we always strive to have that “great day” where we don’t encounter problems. Which is pretty ridiculous, if you think about it, because they will always be there.
At work or at home, there will be some form of miscommunication between yourself and someone else during the day 9 times out of 10 (however small the incident may be). We have worries about ourselves (ugh my hair is gross! I have got to lose this weight! Is this outfit appropriate for ____?). We have financial stresses. WOO HOO my tax refund is huge!!! Wait….what if that is the amount I owe???? Oh, no, that’s not right, that really is my refund!! Wait…. “estimated refund??” Oh, ok, actual refund is enough to get myself a new mule after all! J (this may or may not be a personal example...).
Problems come in all sizes. Sometimes they are ginormous and life-altering. Some of them are just “big,” but they seem a lot bigger to us at the moment than they turn out to be in the long run. Some are so insignificant that we don’t even realize they are a “problem” unless you start looking for things in your day that went wrong. God is teaching me a lot about problems lately. More specifically, He is teaching me about patience and faith. And the fact that I have significant holes with both of these areas that need to be filled.
We don’t like problems because they are out of our control, something we can’t direct. When we can’t control something, we worry. God teaches us that we are supposed to transform worries into prayers (Philippians 4:6-7) and an opportunity to seek His perfect guidance and wisdom instead (James 1:5-6; Ephesians 5:17) and turn the reins over to the one who has promised to always provide enough for us (2 Corinthians 9:8).
One of my favorite areas of scripture comes from Romans 8: 35-39 :
“Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?......No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow-not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below-indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord”
If nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from God’s love, and if overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, then why in the world would anyone worry about anything?!?!
Because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. In times of trouble or distress, the true feelings in our heart are revealed, whether we like them or not. And the chain reaction begins. Pain. Doubt. Worry. Fear. Panic. The way we react to a problem reveals the truth about our faith in God’s love for us and plan for our lives. Fear takes God’s place in our hearts, and it grows rapidly, pushing faith out. And I have been majorly convicted by this over the past two weeks.
I don’t know about you, but my problems always seem a whole lot bigger when I’m facing them directly than when I get the chance to look at them in the rear view mirror some time down the road (ha! “road”…. Rear-view mirror? Pun! Get it?).
Things that I’m struggling with now seem so big, but I’m so thankful that God is patient enough to teach me about being faithful….. again, and again, and again…. I know that He keeps his promises to those who follow him (Hebrews 10:23) and that He will never fail me (1 Peter 4:19). After all, He can see the world from a much better vantage point than I can, and He knows what is best for me much better than my limited 25 years of life experiences thus far. And that is an encouraging thought J
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