Face Your Difficulties and Grow

1/13/2021

It’s been said, “It’s not what happens to a man, but what he does after it happens that really counts.” You can take difficulties, tragedies, failures, and view them as obstacles, OR you can use them…

as opportunities for growth,
as opportunities to be built up,
as steppingstones in your quest to become more Christlike.

Jesus proved this. He took the worst thing that could happen seemingly to a man--the cruel, tortuous death on a cross--and turned it into the best possible thing for mankind--REDEMPTION!

The Bible tells us that “He learned obedience by the things He suffered.” The truth is, we learn obedience the same way.

I used to occasionally play golf. Having said that, I can’t possibly imagine a golfer who would insist that all the difficulties on the course be removed:

Level the hills,
Eliminate the sand traps,
Fill in the water hazards,
Cut down all of the trees,
Do away with the out-of-bounds markers.

Who would want to play on such a course? The difficulties are not there to hinder; they are there to help one’s game. Without them, the sport would have no challenge.

It is a proven fact that rivers become crooked by dodging difficulties; the same is true with us.

What if Moses had chosen NOT to “suffer affliction” and thus had refused to

tell Pharaoh to let God’s people go?

What if David would have turned and run from Goliath?
What if Daniel, in an effort to avoid the lion’s den, would have stopped praying?
What if the Apostle Paul had chosen to not suffer persecution; to not carry

the gospel to the gentiles?

Would these men have been any better off in the long run by dodging their difficulties? Surely
NOT! Their difficulties made them better; greater. Just look at what the fellows accomplished.
Without their difficulties, no one would have ever heard of any of these people.

Hear me please. Our great and wonderful God has promised…

Grace sufficient,
Never failing love,
To be for us,
To work all things for our good,
To supply our needs, and
That His strength would be made perfect in our weakness.

Believe it!

What do the following five verses of Scripture have in common?

Genesis 28:15,
Deuteronomy 31:6,
Joshua 1:5,
I Chronicles 28:20, and
Hebrews 13:5.

Answer: Each of the passages contains the promise that the Lord will not leave us--period!
For instance, Hebrews 13:5, (The Amplified Bible) has it: “He God Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. I will not, I will not, I will not in any degree leave you helpless, nor forsake nor let you down, relax My hold on you. Assuredly not!

I find it interesting that in the original language, the writer actually uses five negatives to stress the positive that the Lord will never leave us or forsake us. Then, as you can see, the promise is repeated five different times in five different places in Scripture! One gets the idea that the Lord means what He says and says what He means!

Joshua 1:9 (New King James Version) therefore adds: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong, and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” This phrase, “Be strong” is found some 312 times in the Bible. It means to be courageous, valiant, manly, strengthened, established, firm, fortified, as well as mighty.

Notice here:

God did not keep Daniel out of the lion’s den.

He did not keep the Three Hebrew Children out of the fiery furnace.
He did not keep David from facing the giant.
Noah still had to ride out the storm in a smelly old boat, and
Paul still had to go to prison.

The Lord simply went through the trials with them. He was their strength and their deliverance! He did not leave them, nor did He forsake them.

God does not always help us by removing the tests, rather He helps us by making the tests work for us. Satan wants to use the trials to tear us down, but God uses them to build us up! He uses them to reveal His faithfulness to us.

The Redeemed Team