Overcoming Life's Trials - OR - Learning to Live The Victorious Life

by Mary Wilson

Ladies Time-Out-Talks 

Every situation that we face in life is allowed to be placed in our path in order to instill in our lives --- character. 

We, as Christians, are being taught by the Holy Spirit of God to be more Christlike daily. Everyday God will allow certain blessings of trials to enter our day in order that we will be trained by the Holy Spirit to be made more like Jesus. 

The character traits of Christ can be found in Galatians 5:22-23;.... Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self- control - These are also known as the fruit of the Spirit. 

Think about this: 1. He teaches us His love when we feel unloved by this world. 2. He teaches us joy in the mist of sorrow. 3. He teaches us peace when He calms life's storms that rage around us. 4. He teaches long-suffering as He imparts His grace into the situation. 5. He teaches us His kindness when people are cruel to us. 6. He teaches us His goodness when we experience the evil endeavors of mankind. 7. He teaches us His faithfulness when we experience loss. 8. He teaches us His gentleness when we experience the roughness of sin. 9. He teaches us His self-control when our world is out of control. 

As we learn from our Master Teacher then we are accountable to Him to show others what He has shown us. This is how a lost person comes to know what Jesus is really like;... it is when they encounter a person living above the normal response and they encounter Jesus bearing His fruit through that persons life. 

Examples: 1.Christian facing death - they have peace. The world can't understand this response so that creates a hunger for God in their life. 

2. Christian facing financial trials - they trust God without worry because they have learned the faithfulness of God through other hard times. Others hear their testimony of faith and are drawn to God. 

3. A parent with a problem relationship with their child - they endure under the pressure of that trial and learn long- suffering. They are a living testimony of God's delivering power over despair. 

We do not learn godly character in times of ease, when everything is going our way! The greatest lessons that we learn in life is through pain and difficulty. It is this time that we learn how to trust; .. when there is no reason left to trust. What you learn in your painful times will enable you to minister to others in the same situations because you understand their pain and you are able to show the compassion of Christ to them. We need to always remember that God is always in control even when our world seems so out of control! 

Joseph learned what it means to overcome. His character was under God's construction as he was shaped by adversity. He received nothing but punishment from certain family members and others that God chose to chisel Joseph's character. He was punished by men; but he was honored by God! 

Question: 

1. Who has God allowed in your life to be used as a chisel to bring out godly character? 

2. How do you respond when someone lies about you? 

3. How do you feel when you receive punishment for doing the right thing? 

4. How do you respond when life doesn't treat you fair? 

One of the most important lessons that we must learn in order to be an over comer is how God teaches us patience! 

James 1:2-5 We must learn to be content in the place we are placed! We must learn that nothing happens by chance or coincidence. God is in control of our lives; and nothing happens to us by accident. Everything occurs for HIS purpose. Maybe because of all the suffering times of Joseph, he became extremely sensitive to other peoples pain; this was a quality of his life that he was lacking in Gen. 37. There should be two reasons why we should respond to life's disappointments in a positive way: 

a. Vertical - gives us an opportunity to trust God and learn of His character. We become solid in our faith. We learn to respond to God in all of life's circumstances with awareness of His loving care. 

B. Horizontal - we need to learn from our pain; and move beyond our pain to help others in pain. Example: As Jesus hung on the cross in more pain than we could ever imagine, He was concerned for His mothers pain. He was concerned for the people that had done Him wrong. We need to mature to the point in our relationship with Jesus that we also are pained for the people who do us wrong. We need to become more like Jesus every day. Life is filled with disappointments and loss, but we can be over comers by refusing to become self-absorbed and self-centered. Instead of wasting our energy in self-pity, we can invest our time in meeting the needs of others. 

Questions: 

1. Do you respond to your pain by becoming self-consumed? 

2. Does a painful experience help motive you to help others in pain? 

3. If your answer to question #2 is yes;... can you see the good in adversity? 

Disillusionment and disappointment are results of putting your trust in men. The times when you feel abandoned by people are the times that God teaches us of His presence. These are the times that build into us the indispensable character quality of patient trust. James 1:2-4 says that this can only be learned through trials. James teaches that without patience there will be no maturity, and without trials, delays, and disappointments there will be no patience. Let's look at the life of a person that we always think of as a successful person; Abraham Lincoln. Before he was a President of the United States he failed twice in business endeavors, he had one nervous breakdown, endured the death of his sweetheart, and was defeated for public office no less than 10 times over the space of 30 yrs. Years of failure had equipped him to deal with all the heights of power. Without the failure, he would have had the tendency to become arrogant and conceited. All of Mr. Lincoln's personal tragedies only strengthened his character and commitment. 

This is exactly what happened in the life of Joseph. All of Joseph's defeats, sufferings, pain, solitude, and disillusionments were used to strengthen him for the task that God was preparing to use him. Until we are willing to accept the authority of God's truth in our lives, we will not have the answers we need for the problems that trouble our hearts and minds. 

Samuel Rutherford said, "Praise God for the hammer, the file, and the furnace. The hammer molds us, the file sharpens us and the fire tempers us." 

Joseph experienced it all, and he was ready to be used of God. Joseph showed grace when it was natural to seek revenge. He showed love when it would had seemed natural to hate. He showed faith when it would have been so easy to cave in to despair. There is only one way to overcome bitterness, and that is to learn to trust God and rest in Him (Romans 8:28). 

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Written by: Mary Wilson
The author may be contacted at http://myweb.cableone.net/brobill/WilsonsHighPlaces.htm marbyw@cableone.net