MORNING MANNA 9-17-23
HARDSHIPS
“And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”- 2 Timothy 2:2–4
The Christian life is not referred to as warfare in the Scriptures symbolically. We are engaged day after day in a real life-and-death struggle with an enemy who is intent on our destruction. Jesus said, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy” (John 10:10). The devil will do everything that he can to attack us at any weak point he can find. It is absolutely certain that difficulty, trials, and hardship will be with us until we reach Heaven. That does not mean, however, that we must be defeated by them. God calls us to be overcomers, and that requires that we properly respond when things go wrong.
An unknown poet wrote:
All the water in the world
However hard it tried,
Could never, never sink a ship
Unless it got inside.
All the hardships of this world,
Might wear you pretty thin,
But they won’t hurt you, one least bit
Unless you let them in.
There has never been a case in all of history in which anyone improved a situation by complaining and griping about it. Sitting around moping and asking “Why me?” inevitably leads to discouragement. Instead, God calls us to treat difficulties like a reality that must be dealt with rather than as an indication that we should quit. The good soldier does not quit fighting just because it rains or snows or because there are a lot of enemies. Our love for God and our commitment to serve Him should endure any difficulty that comes our way.
Reminding ourselves that we are in a battle makes it easier to properly respond when hardships come.(Copied)
David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
Humble, Tx
