Life can at times be tiring and draining. It places obstacles in the paths to climb over to reach where we want to go. How many times have you been asked about your day, only to reply, “I’m so tired,” “It was a rough day,” or “Today was so stressful?”
Public holidays are no better. Your extended family comes over for a gathering. You’ve to set the place for more people than available chairs. Just thinking about the amount of food you’ve to prepare raises your anxiety. To add to your stress, your kids are pestering you to take them on their dream vacation at the year-end.
I recently woke up in the middle of the night with fearful thoughts about the future – Why can’t life be perfect? Why can’t it always be smooth-sailing, without challenges or stressors that trigger our anxiety, fear, and doubt? Just when things get a little more comfortable, a situation arises out of nowhere that knocks us completely out of our comfort zone.
Then again, is a perfect life what God intends for us? Is life supposed to just be a bed of roses? I’m reminded of the words of Jesus in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Let’s face it – there’ll always be difficulties, things that make you want to throw your hands up in despair. The Bible is replete with accounts of men and women whose lives are anything but hunky-dory.
Their stories tell us how God journeyed with them through various challenges, failures, twists, and turns. He revealed Himself in the process, brought them into a deeper relationship with Him, and formed them into who He wanted them to be.
God doesn’t see our lives as obstacles to be overcome and difficulties to be worked through. He sees everything we’re supposed to be, and wants us to become. Where we see a mountain, God just points to the passageway through the valley that we overlooked.
Our lives are about becoming more like Jesus. Instead of seeing it as a pursuit of happiness the way the world sees, let’s see as God sees us. Take a step back, think again, because it’s about our perspectives.
Imagine having a tiring day. Work has not gone smoothly, the kids are acting up, or you can’t wait for school to be over.
But what if you looked at the situation differently? Your job is not who you are, it’s part of what you do in the process of being formed by God to be whom you’re supposed to be.
Your children are a blessing (I’m not trying to cheer you up) – they’re a literal blessing! And school feels boring now because you can see the exciting phase of life awaiting you when you’ve learned all that you need this season.
When we see the purposes of God in every little thing, we put life into the right perspective and discover what energises us with the drive and faith we’re intended to live in the Spirit.
Don’t fight a negative, look beyond it. Don’t battle fear, embrace God’s love. Our position in Christ allows us to find the opposite of any negative and embrace that as our attitude, mindset, and lifestyle.
In every life situation, we can incorporate all that Jesus is into all that we’re not. Simply put away the old and put on the new person we are in Jesus. Sometimes, the real problem is when we try to be rid of fear, what we truly need is to experience the perfect love in Christ.
