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“Not simply the hardship, but also our reaction to the hardship, is forming us.”

A thought by Jeff Manion (2010-07-14) from his book, The Land Between: Finding God in Difficult Transitions (Kindle Locations 311-312). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

On my other blog, bill’s front porch, I dealt with today the fact that we are never going to be problem free.  Problems are inevitable and the same is true of hardships.

I think that may come as a surprise to some Christians.  They believe that because they have asked Jesus to come into their life then there will be no hardships in their life but what that means is they haven’t studied too much about the life of Jesus.  One of the reasons why He came to earth was to show us how God would handle hardships.  They will come.  They are a part of His plan to cultivate our dependency on Him and to strengthen us in our resolve and our character. 

Now our reaction to the hardship is of major importance.  What do you do?  How do you react?  Do you whine or complain?   Those reactions show a definite immaturity.  God wants you to be mature in your reactions.  Jesus never whined or complained.  No, He went to His Father for strength and for guidance in and through the hardship.

Now Jesus started each day alone with His Father.  He knew the hardships were coming and He wanted to be prepared.  Do you spend time in His Word?  Do you pray even when you don’t have a problem?  Do you cultivate your relationship with God so you will know how He would react?  You see we can react in worry, fear and despair or in trust, faith and dependency.  It all depends upon what you are feeding on in your life?

Now hardships come from many sources.  They can come for your sins, from your selfish ways.  Confession is a right way to react. 

They can come from Satan.  Job was a classic example of this.  Our reaction needs to be to go to God and to trust Him to give you strength to combat Satan and his ways.      

They can come from wrong decisions you have made.  Learn the lesson and then go to God for guidance to get you on the right path.

They can come from life.  Understand that it rains on the just and the unjust.  The difference is you have God to sustain you in those difficult times.

They can also come from God.  He uses hardships to strengthen your resolve in doing His task that He wants you to do so just depend on Him and keep at it.  He can use it to have you change the path you are on.  Maybe He now has another direction for you to go.  Spend some time in reflection, in prayer and in counsel with people who have a mature relationship with God.  He can also use hardships to discipline you, to deal with a weakness in your character, to test you, to train you and to lead you to a deeper dependency on Him. 

Understand, hardships are your friend.  No matter where they come from they can lead you to God.  God may not be the source but He will be the solution.  Just go to Him.

So what hardship are you facing? 
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