Not one of us likes inconvenience, setbacks, failures, sickness or disease and its pain and suffering, or having to be patient in difficulties for very long. We do not like to put up with disagreeable people, noisy neighbors or ones that do not take care of their property.
Listen :
Yet things like these, and so many others we face regularly that are hardships to one degree or another, are the very things that help us to learn of and adopt the ways of God; such hardships are things to train us to behave in righteousness and holiness when we face them.
As the children of God, we are to be generally easy-going, understanding, patient, loving and kind and helpful, forgiving and caring, and faithful unto God and His ways—all things that most of us are not by the old selfish and sinful nature very good at on our own.
We have to be “tutored, instructed and educated” (KJV: “chastised”) out of our old ways and molded into new ones—ways that are how Jesus was toward others, and how He is today toward you and me!
By his experience, the Apostle Paul shares with us how we are to change our thinking and responses to trouble:
In part one I asked and then answered this question:
“How do these hardships come about in your life and mine? Wrong choices or some that do not turn out at all the way we thought they would, financial trouble, sickness or disease, setbacks at our job, rejection by others, the failure of an endeavor, betrayals, physical disabilities, loss of a loved one, trouble in the home, persecution for our faith; essentially anything that affects our life in a way that we view as negative that slows us down, stops our hoped-for progress, or ends something we wanted to continue.”
“These things usually cause a change in our planned direction and are to align us more with the Lord’s plan for our life, and where God is concerned brings a change in our character and our future.”
In our times of trouble when we beg for total relief, God says to you and to me, “My favor upon your life is enough because what I can be to you is made complete when you are without strength and look to Me.” And so, we must train ourselves to quickly recognize this and look upon our trouble with an attitude of humility and, yes, to appreciate it by faith knowing that God is at work in us doing good things in order that His power and the force of supernatural results will cover me and cover you like a tent in bad weather.
The purpose of this part two discussion about Hardships Among the Ways of God is to give you what I have found is the-essential-key to cooperating with God during our permitted or arranged hardships by God. It is not some new spiritual revelation, nor was it surprising to me when I realized it, since Paul told us how to deal with our “thorns in the flesh”.
Recall again that he wrote: “Most gladly (sweetly) therefore will I rather glory (have joy) in my infirmities (feebleness, strengthlessness, frailty, sickness), that the power (miracle power and force) of Christ may rest (tent) upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure (think well of) in” my troubles. We, too, must stay “sweet” and maintain our “joy” as the children of God when we experience our hardships. If-and-as we do these things, we are tabernacled under the miracle power of the Lord Jesus, which helps us through the hardship and its purpose or lesson to be learned.
But there is just a bit more to do on our part and that is to express our sweetness and the joy of His salvation; we must praise our God and Savior. No matter the hardship or its level of trouble, small or great, we are to remember the Lord, and to praise Him.
If you know your Bible, you know that over and over and over again we are commanded, reminded, and relentlessly encouraged to praise the Lord. “Praise” is used 248 times in the KJV Bible; praise is the medicine that soothes the hurt or pain or inconvenience or the fear of our trials—if we will take our medicine.
Now let me be clear about this thing of praising the Lord in our times of trouble. I am not saying that you are to say, “Oh, Lord, I praise you for this sickness or terrible disease that has come up in my body,” or things like, “Father, I praise you that my car has broken down and I have no way to get to work”, or other such things.
While it is true that in rare circumstances one might praise the Lord for a particular hardship, what I am saying (and from some years of experience now) is that when trouble strikes, when you are discouraged or feeling depressed or misunderstood or another of a dozen other negative reasons to feel downcast, encourage yourself in the Lord by praising Him for Who He is and not necessarily for the problem. We are to let the problem drive us to the Lord in praise and, of course, prayer for help and guidance.
But there is just a bit more to do on our part and that is to express our sweetness and the joy of His salvation; we must praise our God and Savior. No matter the hardship or its level of trouble, small or great, we are to remember the Lord, and to praise Him.
“Praise God from Whom all blessings flow” and that all things work together for our good!
Praise Him because He has not left you nor forsaken you.
Praise Him because you have been born again and one day will be forever in His joy-filled Presence.
Praise Him for His love and mercy and His everyday grace over your life.
Praise God in spite of the thing that has (in light of the length of eternity) momentarily physically, emotionally, or financially slapped you!
And don’t do it thinking it will erase the hardship because it does not—but it does sooth the heart.
When his wives and stuff and the other men’s wives and children and their stuff were carried off as prisoners of war and the men wanted to stone him, David encouraged himself in the Lord; there was no one else in the camp responding in patience and faithfulness toward God—the man David was alone in his pain and being threatened.
By the rehearsing of his faith in the God of Israel and the power of Jehovah, David “fastened” himself to the Lord in the knowledge that God would not fail him. He didn’t impulsively act, go out and hope to get them all back and then praise the Lord God of Israel, he reminded himself in the pain of the loss and before the victory of their recovery [he reminded himself] of Who God was to him and found the strength, the courage, and the guidance to do what he and his men then did to get their people back safe and sound.
Again, and paraphrased in 21st century thought what Paul said: “In my troubles I will stay sweet-natured before the Lord and before others and maintain joy in the Lord in spite of my hardships. I do this and will do this in my tomorrows so that the miracle power and force of my God through Christ may abide upon me; it is His promise breaking through in my weakness.
Instead of fear and pouting, by faith I will think well of my troubles, rejoice in the Lord, and have victory in the end, whatever that is.”
As to rejoicing in the Lord - in these times and the present Christian culture - rejoicing is a rare thing and yet we are urged to and even commanded to throughout the Word of God.
It is one thing to rejoice in the Lord or before Him when we are elevated in our spirits during our worship times in song, or by our testimonies of a recent triumph, but rejoicing in the Lord is quite another thing when we are alone and enduring some affliction of body, or mind and heart, or one day for our very faith in God in times of persecution. But we are called to!
Yet these things we face all too often, and so many others unique to our individual lives as very personal hardships to one degree or another, are the very things that help us to learn of and adopt the ways of God; they are hard things for us to participate in the development of within us in order that we can behave in a biblical manner as required when we face them—but participate we are called to do.
From our Bibles we are to study righteous and holy responses and practice them in our everyday life when things are good and when events become sour for us.
One of the great lessons that I have been taught and engage in each day is the practice of praise—not only as an essential part of my victory when hardships come up but even before they happen. My personal life is one of praise and thanksgiving before, during, and after troubles of any degree; and yours is to be also.
One last point I want to make about the call to personal, sincere, and humble praise before our God involves what many might see as an error in the Scriptures.
Mysteriously, the altar of incense at † Exodus 30:6outside the veil is now mentioned at † Hebrews 9:3 and is found inside the veil and standing before the very Presence of God, which is only possible after the death of our perfect Sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross; this table and its incense represents the true and trained believer’s continual heart’s-burning of praise and worship unto Him—a sweet fragrance unto God and most holy. Hardships develop this most wonderful aspect in our relationship with our God and Savior—if we will respond rightly to our troubles. Selah!
In summary: For the true Christian, our hardships are either permitted or arranged by God for our chastisement—the correcting of our ways to be one-with the righteous and holy ways of our God and Savior. We can make such times of training easier if we will be a people of praise before, during and after the tough issues of our lives.
Wouldn’t you like your divinely appointed testings, trials and lessons to be more tolerable? If you do, engage the practice of praise and the expressing of your joy of being saved (rejoicing) regularly, and especially when hardships arise.
Welcome to the newest on-line news service in the Porterville area. Our goal is to report the right news at the right time. In doing this, we believe that the community will get a greater sence of being connected.
The Right News @ The Right Time
Our second goal is to report above and beyond the main stream media.
Politically Inform and Educate
Our third goal is to politically inform and educate the public at large.
A Conservative Publication
The Porterville Post is a conservative publication and news service and when the Post makes a mistake in our reporting, we'll address it "Right Here" and if needed, with an appology. Please feel free to contact us with your comments or suggestions.
Writers | Columnists | Reporters
The Post, in the next few years, we'll be looking for new writers, columnists and reporters. We understand the need for new writers to have the chance of starting a new career and we'd like to offer a free internship at the Post.
