By Chris WittsSunday 4 Aug 2024Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
I was talking about frustrations in Part 1. Who is there among us that has never been frustrated? Is it because we just can’t keep up with things? I talked about lowering our expectations. Here are some other things you could do to ease the frustrations in your own life:
2. Accept life as it is
One thing is guaranteed in the game of life: you will be dealt a bad hand from time to time. Devote a small amount of time to thoughts of the difficult situation or period in your life, and focus on what you can do to change your current state of affairs. Your feelings of frustration will always take a back seat to creative emotional energy.
3. Take nothing personally
People develop frustration over being let down by someone, cut off in traffic, shouted at by a loved one or any one of other common things. Nothing anyone says or does should be taken as a direct affront to you. People have their reasons for the way they act, and, though it may seem it at times, their behaviour has nothing to do with you and everything to do with their emotional mindset at the time you crossed their paths.
4. Take time to put the situation into perspective
If you begin to feel yourself becoming frustrated, go somewhere quiet and think about if the situation is worth being upset. Chances are when you contemplate whatever it is, you’ll realise that in the grand scheme of life, it’s just not that important. A reporter interviewing a 104-year-old woman asked: “What is the best thing about being 104?” She replied, “No peer pressure.” She understood life really well I think!
Having troubles is part of being human
Trouble is something that belongs to the human race. I’ve yet to meet anyone who can boast of being totally free from it. It is one of those common denominators that links everyone who has lived, who is now living, or who will live on this earth. In the Old Testament in the Bible, Job, who had his share of troubles, tells us “man is born unto trouble” (Job 5:7) and again, “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble” (Job 14:1). Troubles plagues the human race.
Troubles produce ‘tough days’. We’ve all experienced them and we know that some seem to be worse than others. I’ve had days ‘pop up’ in my life—and no doubt you have too—when you wonder why you ever crawled out of bed that morning, and then you wonder if you’re going to make it back to bed that night.
You don’t need to go looking for trouble—it will find you anyway.
In the comic strip Peanuts, Charlie Brown is saying to Lucy, “I’ve got so many troubles that if anything happens to me today it will be two weeks before I can worry about it.” Can you identify with Charlie? Here’s a fact about life that you can count on happening no matter who you are. Trouble, in one or more of its various forms, is going to come knocking unexpectedly at your door one day. Don’t spend your time looking for it—for it will find you. Trouble knows your address. Prepare yourself in advance to deal with whatever your ‘it’ may be.
Christians are not exempt from trouble
Christians encounter ‘tough days’ too. We really do a great injustice to others if we leave the impression in our preaching and witnessing that becoming a Christian will automatically exempt a person from experiencing any troubles or difficulties in life. When Job said, “A man is born unto trouble,” he stated a truth that applies to all mankind. Not even Christian ‘super-faith’ can change that truth.
Christ brings many gifts into our life when we are born again, but a state of perpetual tranquillity, free from troubles, is not one of them. In this life, there are no utopias for us to live in. There are no cities, neighbourhoods, nor churches that are ideal or free from troubles or that do not need change or improvement in some way. There are no jobs that don’t have their share of frustrations, discouragement or disappointments. Some have more than others.
It’s unrealistic to believe that every venture we endeavour will be successful or that we will be perfect in all we attempt to do. Sometimes for various reasons we may fail to achieve the goal we have set. But we shouldn’t let that failure become fatal to us. Jesus told the disciples, “In this world you will have troubles, but take heart, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Although none of us has immunity from the troubles of life that come our way, God gives us a message of encouragement in his Word when he promises to help us when those troubles come:
- “Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you” (Psalm 50:15 – NKJV).
- “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in the time of trouble,” (NKJV) or in the Amplified Bible “A very present and well proved help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1 – AMP).