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Tag: Difficulties

Choose Life!

Choose Life!

Many people find themselves at a point in their lives where positivity doesn’t really feature at all. They might say there is too much pain and suffering going around, and that there is nothing to be happy about.

Here’s the thing, you can either stay in that state of mind, or you can rise above your difficulties by choosing “life” (Christ Jesus) instead of heaviness.

I would love to share with you how I have walked through my difficult times by choosing “life” over heaviness. In those times, I had to constantly be mindful of what I wanted to achieve in the spirit. My goal was to find peace and joy, no matter what I was facing.

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.

Philippians 4:11

This was my goal, to find contentment in every season of my life.

God used my years of teaching primary school; He taught me and my students how important it was to have a positive attitude in any circumstance. One year, God allowed me to work with 5 students in my class who had many learning problems. It was not an easy task, although they had the same type of learning issues, they had different personalities, so what worked for the one did not work for the others.

I had to drink deep from the Lord and I had to rely on Holy Spirit for intervention and clever ideas to meet each one at their level of understanding.

Gratitude: From Heaviness To Joy And Peace

Most of the time, the atmosphere in the class was heavy. These little ones would come to school in the mornings with strained faces and you could see how difficult it was for them to be at school and try to get through the work set out for them. Every child had a goal to reach daily. For these 5 little ones, seeing the goals that they had to reach was just too much, and it overwhelmed them.

I didn’t know how to lift their spirits so that they could start the day with peace and joy. It was then that the Lord told me to start ministering to their state of mind, to get their focus away from that which weighed them down.

Every morning I would allow each child to name one or two things they were grateful for. It was such a great opportunity for them to speak about things they loved, and they would tell us stories about these things that brought them joy. The funniest things came out! They would talk about their pets or siblings and the funny things they’d do. Quickly, the atmosphere would change and morale improved. After devotions, everybody went back to their seats and peace and joy filled the atmosphere. I noticed a huge improvement in their schoolwork. Everything in class went much smoother than before we started this excercise. Looking for things to be grateful for, and telling each other about them each day became a habit for our class.

Isn’t this what God wants us to do? To look for and find those things that bring us joy? Looking for things that bring life and taking our eyes off the things that are overwhelming.

Approaching Frustrations And Irritations

At about the same time, a friend and I also decided to change how we respond when irritating situations came our way. We decided to immediately take our focus off the situation and to start thanking God for his mercy and grace. To ask Him to use the situation for His glory. We decided to do this to get to that place of peace even when there were things making our lives difficult. It required quite a bit of focus and effort because we had to change our “default setting” – responding negatively.

How do you change a bad habit? You need to reprogram yourself with a new response. This is usually the opposite to your normal response or way of doing things. Depending on the change it may require some hard work, pushing against your normal way of doing things. But soon enough it will become second nature and the change will have replaced the old bad habit with a good one.

Not long after this decision, the tests came. Isn’t that how it always goes? The moment you want to change something within yourself, you get bombarded – without warning – with those things that trigger you. As if someone is trying to make you fail.

The Test

One day, I was in a huge hurry to get home but I had to stop at the gas station first. I took the keys out of the ignition and I hurried into the convenience store. I had to get some bread that I had forgotten to get at the grocery store. As I rushed back to the car I reached into my handbag only to realize I had locked the keys in the car. I had taken it out of the ignition, put it on the seat and locked the door as I got out (back in the days when this was actually possible). Just as I wanted to get mad at myself, I remembered…

I started praying and said, “Okay God, I am here now. You knew it was going to happen. I choose to believe that you are either protecting me from something or someone needs a touch from You. I ask that You send the right people to help me. And I surrender to whatever You want to do. Have Your way.” Immediately, peace fell on me and I was ready for an adventure!

Soon enough, a few guys asked if I needed help. It wasn’t long before we were laughing at jokes while trying to figure out how to get the car open. It was fun! Maybe we all needed some laughter, who knows? All I know is that God uses any opportunity to bless us, we just need to open our hearts and surrender to Him. It’s amazing how the way you approach something negative can turn it into a blessing.

Beloveds, as children of God we need to find that sweet spot. Being grateful for what we have even in tough spaces. Changing negative situations into blessing by approaching them differently, and moving in the opposite spirit to the negative and irritating things in front of us. We have the power to either agree or not agree with things. Remeber, whatever you agree with, you will have.

Let’s Ponder On This

How do we respond to negative things? Do we get miserable and irritable and go with that flow? Aren’t those the characteristics and fruit of our enemy, the devil? Do we come into agreement with the devil’s way of doing things? If we invite Jesus into the situation then He can turn it into a blessing. We agree with heaven’s way of doing things. We can change situations in our lives by how we approach them and by carrying the fruit of the Spirit, especially self-control.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

Let Us Pray

Abba Father, I have been quite miserable lately and I have been keeping my eyes on all the difficulties I am facing right now. I am responding negatively to every negative thing. Father, I don’t have the strength to choose joy and life. But You say when I am weak, You are strong. Therefore, I am hooking into Your strength right now. I repent for looking at the bad and for only having it in mind. I have not even seen the blessings You have given me, and I have not thanked you for that which I have that blessess my heart. Please forgive me for being stuck here. Please forgive me for affecting others negatively with the cloud of heaviness I carry with me. Please wash me in Your blood and please touch me, in Jesus name. I know I can’t see the blessings you give daily so lovingly because negativity is in my face, but I choose to look for them. Thank You that You will help me to find them because my eyes are open to look for them. Holy Spirit, please remind me daily to look for that sweet spot of finding contentment in whatsoever state I am in. Help me to be mindful of finding peace, daily, even in my darkest hours. I pray this in Jesus mighty name. Amen and amen.

Trials

Trials

Why do trials sometimes take long before breakthrough comes? Can’t it just happen quickly?

Romans 12:12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Something that we as human beings are not good at – Patience. We live in a society where everything is instant and we tend to think that it is the same in the spirit, but God requires us to be patient in our trials, walking them out and not looking for a quick fix.

So, we have a problem, we don’t want to struggle and we don’t want to feel pain. The further we can stay away from it, the better for us. We always want to dodge getting hurt and we want things in our lives to be quiet and peaceful. Plainly said, we do not want to go through trials, ever. The word of God says that trials build our character and we will grow in our faith. Think about it, if we don’t have trials, will we ever need to trust God for anything?

My mother in law is an amazing lady. One thing I have learnt from her is to embrace life with all it’s curve balls and make the best out of something terrible. I remember one time my husband was on his way home. The highway got backed up due to a huge accident so he decided to take a detour off the highway down a muddy track with the four wheel drive car. He got stuck in mud. He phoned me to come lend a hand (I had the real 4×4), but I couldn’t assist him effectively. By that time it was dark and our little children were hungry and tired. We were cold and dirty from all the mud. We phoned my in-laws and they came to help. By the time they arrived we were annoyed and not very happy. My mother in-law jumped out of her car, took the children with such a big smile and told them what an awesome adventure we are having. Immediately all of our attitudes changed and we started enjoying the “adventure”. It wasn’t long and all were sorted out.

Isn’t that how it is? The moment you roll with it and not get bitter, things just get sorted out much quicker. The more we push against the uncomfortable situations we face, the more we become miserable and actually make it worse for ourselves.

James 1:2-4 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

First of all, God says we should be happy when we face trials because it will produce unwavering faith. We all will agree that we as children of God need to grow more in faith, we do lack in trusting God in everything concerning ourselves. The part of the verse that says:”that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing“. This means that there may be nothing lacking to complete your character.

How we approach our trials will either make or break us.

One thing I believe is that our Lord is never taken by surprise by the trials and tribulations we have to face. He knew it was coming and He has all the resources available to us to get through it. I have learnt when trouble is in my camp to say to the Lord, Father, I am in this space and You know exactly what is going on and how I will get through this, what do I need to learn here? I also push against myself by choosing to change my attitude towards my situation, rather than grumbling and fighting against it I turn my attention towards the Lord and who He is.

There is such liberty that comes when we immediately surrender to the Lord’s will in our trials, when we immediately give Him permission to intervene and interfere. If we start kicking, screaming and throwing tantrums about what we have to face it usually takes much longer to get through.

My husband is truly a man of integrity and uprightness. He is such a loyal and committed person. Especially in the workplace, he loves working hard and putting effort and excellence into everything he does.

Years ago, he had been working for a company for about 9 years and all of a sudden they started giving him bad reviews. They said his work was brilliant, but they accused him of not being a team player and said that people don’t like him (I immediately heard the accuser of the bretheren, the devil, trying to break my husbands character down by saying he is not accepted and he is not good enough). So, when time came for his annual increase it was lower than the national inflation rate (the company would generally give all its employees at least an increase equal to the national inflation rate). I couldn’t understand this, he was a hard worker, he worked overtime without being paid and he was brilliant in his work.

My heart was very sore for him, but immediately I seeked God out and I waited on Him to show me what and how to pray. I had to go through all the Chapters in Psalms and I had to find all scriptures on God vindicating us, God silencing the mouth of the lier (the devil), God bringing justice, God bringing judgment on the enemy and God delivering us. I highlighted all those scriptures and every morning in my prayer time I would start proclaiming these scriptures over my husbands situation.

3 Months past and they did another review – again, the same report. I was really not happy, I had been praying everyday, diligently, pushing against the onslaught. The Lord’s response – “just keep at it”. I did, every morning, praying and proclaiming the same scriptures over and over. God showed me that I was busy hammering at a huge wall and as I keep at it, hammering at the same place the wall will start crumbling. It meant that I had to patiently endure until something happened.

I am not saying that this is easy. It requires you to find a rhythm, like running a long and far race – you can’t sprint it! Most of all you have to constantly choose to keep your attitude right.

After a year (praying the same scriptures), it was increase time again. Nothing! The same – lower than inflation. I was tired and I felt very bad for my husband. I wrestled with the Lord about this. His reply;” So, are you going to back off because the enemy is in your face, frightening you?” That was all I needed, I said ok Father what else can I add to my prayer? I started blessing and praying for the people in authority’s hearts.

It was after a year and 9 months of prayer: during a one-on-one his manager reviewed the latest reviews. His team members were now saying what an amazing person he is; how they loved working with him. The report started changing. Almost 2 years had passed and another company (out of the blue – sent by the Lord) approached my husband and offerred him a job. God told us what salary to ask for and it was much higher than what he used to get. They agreed and my husband was appointed at the new company.

God has given him much more than what he had before. I asked the Lord about what he was busy doing in my husbands life in that time. God was testing his heart, that even though when they were raising against his character, he stayed true to who he was, he did not change himself to fit into their molds and even though it was tough going to work daily, having bad vibes in the office, he still gave his very best.

Two years may seem really long to you. But I can tell you our faith is much stronger and the Lord has truly polished some of our rough edges. We have learnt to trust only in the Lord and His Word; to stand, to not give up even if there is no change; to keep our integrity; to not lash out when people are damaging our character and to patiently wait until something happens.

Beloved, your trial may just be starting, or you have been walking it for many years. You might not see what you have learnt or how things will change, but the Lord is with you in this fire. He may not neccesarily stop it immediately, but you can be assured, He will take you through.

Isaiah 43:1-2 But now, this is what the LORD says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

Beloved, pace yourself by praying what you feel God is showing you. Don’t try to speed the process up with your own ideas. This is a marathon, it’s not a sprint. Surrender (give over to God’s will and way) to what God wants to teach you and give Him permission to interfere in your situation because He knows what must take place. You will get through. Seasons do change, you will not stay in that place forever. Most importantly, if you have been praying and proclaiming and nothing has changed, or you cannot see anything positive: when you are prayed up – don’t deviate (trying to follow your own ideas), stay the course by standing on God’s word.

STAND, HOLD YOUR GROUND!

Ephesians 6:10-13 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  

Let us pray:

Father, I am in the fire. I ask, as you were with Daniel in the fire, that You will be next to me. I acknowledge that You have all the answers and You have all the resources I need to walk through this trial. I ask that You will download to me that which I need to overcome and to walk in Heavenly wisdom. Father, I do not have the answers, but You do. Please guide my steps. Please guide me to be effective in prayer. Most of all, please show me what it is that I must learn. I surrender Father, I am letting go and I am letting You intervene. You have full permission to let Your kingdom come and Your will be done in my life, in the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen and amen.

I Pray that God will strengthen you with power in your innermost being through His spirit, so that you can run the race with patient endurance in Jesus name.

Here is a song for you to listen to.