Appreciate your suffering and trials

It's clear that the Christian will encounter difficult times in his or her life.  How we face these times, our attitude, is vital.

 

One person will shrink back, reluctant to feel the pain, or reluctant to be challenged in an uncomfortable manner.  Some trials involve the revealing of personal sin or character defects.  Nobody wants to face these really.  This sort of pain is far worse than physical suffering, which is why it is harder to submit to.

 

Another person will realise that such exposure is unavoidable - God sees all of your defects anyway.  This person will not only realise this obvious truth, but they will also embrace it, and the pain in confronting them self, so that they might overcome their flaws and grow to be a better person in Christ.  They will also approach trials and suffering as a chance to learn more about them self, again opening to see the reality about them self.

 

The Christian's path is always upward.  They don't seek pain and suffering for fun, but they do hope to change for the better every day, bringing glory to their Saviour.

Do you fear losing something or someone?

What if it is God's purpose that you are to lose everything?  Your comforts in life, the people that you love, your health?

 

Sometimes emotions can't be helped, but at least you can sort out your mind when you have a fear.

 

If it is God's purpose for something to happen, it will happen.  Nothing can stop it.  But if you are His, He will give you the strength to survive and to make it through, either by overcoming or by enduring until the end.

 

Once you have accepted that God really is in control, and that if He wills bad things to happen they will happen, then you can get on with shaping your life with this in mind.  What decisions would be different?  Would you anticipate material acquisitions so keenly, or their loss? Would your focus be on more immaterial, eternal, and spiritual things?

 

If you are not living with your own immanent end in mind, then you will not live as you should.  Jesus could come back at any moment or you could be taken at any moment.  

 

Some might think "at least I won't have to apologise to so-and-so" but really you should be thinking "I should go and apologise as quick as I can, and what is the point in getting upset about this again when I'm going to live for eternity in the joy of the Lord".

 

The balance: should you stop planning for tomorrow?  No way!  Just as God might take your life tomorrow, He might decide that you should stay another 20 years or more! But the length of your life, or the amount of time of possessions (or dear friends/loved ones) in your hand, shouldn't change your attitude.