Handling The Problems That Come Our Way

It should not surprise us when problems come our way, for these are just a part of life. A few years ago, I emailed a close friend, who was having difficulty in finding a suitable job for his talents, and told him, “Yes, life is always full of decisions, isn’t it? Very little peace and tranquility down here on this globe. After a person gets to old age, you’d think that life would settle down a bit, but it never does. There’s always something to contend with, whether it’s a marriage relationship, health problems, job challenges, or church problems.”

Have we ever seen a golf course without hazards? No, simply because they are part of the game. In fact, golfers speak of the courses with the most hazards, as the most challenging. And they will travel to distant lands in order to test their skill against the most demanding 18 holes.

Oliver Wendell Holmes once stated, “If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I wouldn’t pass it around. I wouldn’t be doing anyone a favor. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it …. meet it as a friend, for you’ll see a lot of it and you had better be on speaking terms with it” (source).

Beloved, let us never think it strange when problems come our way, for God is using those problems to test the stamina of our souls. The most successful way to handle the problems that come our way, is to “entrust our souls to a faithful Creator while doing good” (1 Peter 4:19 ESV; cf. 2 Timothy 1:8-12 ESV).

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets