Overcoming Other Challenges With Our Circumstances
As optimistic as we may be, we are sure to encounter challenges that will try our ability to practice active patience during troublesome situations.
The first challenge to overcome is to accept that, despite the goals we may have set or the outcome we hope to attain from a situation, we have no guarantee that God will satisfy our desires.
We might not get that dream job or be cured of our illness. While God can and has performed miracles, He isn’t a genie up in the sky booming “YOUR WISH IS MY COMMAND!” to everything we may want.
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God is sovereign and because of that knows best of all how to achieve His plans. The truth is that most of the circumstances that require our patience do not include specific promises from God.
God has promised to meet our needs, but that isn’t a guarantee that all of our wishes will come true.
It’s easy to interpret the above verse to mean we can get whatever we want if we just believe enough, but that thinking has a few flaws.
First, it doesn’t take into consideration the first part of the verse, that we should take delight in the Lord. In other words, trust that His plan is primary, not our desires.
Second, we may not even know what the desires of our hearts are. We are bombarded daily with worldly influences and the devil’s prodding.
While we may believe that one thing is what we want in life, we might be missing out on something even better. Is the first the desire of our heart just because it is known? Who better, God or us, to know what will make us truly happy?
I think about a friend of mine who was feeling discouraged in life. His work wasn’t satisfying, and that frustration was starting to spill over into his family and personal life as well.
He began to self-medicate with too much TV and rich food. Over time, he became more and more out of shape and started to put on the pounds. That added stress did little to improve his attitude toward life.
Then, one day he was hit with a case of gout. You may be aware that gout is an inflammatory condition that affects the foot. It is very painful and can spread all the way up the leg, causing extreme discomfort, to the point where concentration on anything else is nearly impossible.
My friend saw his doctor, who frankly told him it was the wrong food and lifestyle choices that were giving him his pain, and challenged him to clean up his eating habits and get healthy again—the alternative: a future of painful gout attacks.
He agreed to give it a try, but like breaking free of any stronghold, it wasn’t easy. He went through the entire grief process. Denial: “It isn’t what I eat, maybe I have a broken ankle or a tumor…” Anger: “Why did this happen to me?”
Bargaining: “Okay, I’ll be good for a month, then I can go back to my old ways…” Depression: “I’m never going to be able to eat anything but salad for the rest of my life.” And finally, Acceptance: “Whole grain is not so bad, and it fills me up for a long time!”
In just three short weeks, my friend is reporting not only much less pain from gout but also a fresh and more creative outlook on his work and with his family and friends. His life is back on the right track, and some of his stalled dreams have revived.
My point with this story isn’t to start eating more healthily (although this is not a bad idea), but to ask you to understand that sin and Satan’s attempts to derail us keep us chained to the mundane when God has greater things in store for us.
So even if we don’t get the desires of our hearts, we shouldn’t lose patience or get angry with God. He knows what the real desires of our hearts are, and will settle for nothing less. We shouldn’t either.