Ah...! Why can't life be easier?

On my "Words to Ponder" section of my blog, I have a quote my pastor once said that has stuck with me for many years. He said: "Frustration is you, not getting your own way". This quote hit me because at the time in my life I often felt frustrated with circumstances going on around me. It was then that I realized that if I did not let my frustrations go I was going to live a very discontented life.

I have been reading from my devotional "Everyday light" by Selwyn Hughes and today it really spoke to me. BTW, (I just learned what "BTW" means. It means "By the way". Thank you, Kyleen!) if you have never read his devotionals, think about reading them. They are always so good and to the point. I think you can read them online too. Any ways, I wanted to share what I read today. Here it is:

"Taking every project prisoner"

We continue looking at things we can do to stay spiritually fresh. Another suggestion is this-learn how to deal with frustration. Time and time again, I have sat with people who have said: “What’s wrong with me? I feel so low spiritually. I am not involved in sin. Why does my Christian life feel so stale? On many of those occasions, I have observed that the problem contributing to their feelings of spiritual staleness is an inability to cope with frustration.

One of the most radiant Christians I have ever met was a seed salesman in West Wales. He was crippled in both his lower limbs by poliomyelitis, he drove a hand-controlled car and would make his way to outlying farms to sell seed to the farmers. Sometimes it would take him an hour just to get out of his car and open a farm gate-but he persevered nevertheless.

One day I said to him: “Don’t you get frustrated by your condition? How do you keep going like this when many others would have settled for a lifetime of invalidism and inactivity?” His reply has lived on in my heart for over thirty years: “I take every project prisoner to make it obey Christ-even the project of poliomyelitis.” He had learned how to make his frustration fruitful. When you and I can learn how to make the ugly into the beautiful, the evil into the good, then frustration will never get a hold on us. The secret of living is the secret of using. Learn that and you will never be frustrated again.

For further reading I read in 2 Cor. 4:1-10 that I am a fragile being "a jar of clay". And in this fragile being I have a treasure- His power. Some might say why put a priceless treasure in something that is fragile and knowingly break? God said that He purposely did this to show that this power is from Him and not from me. How humbling! It also says that I will be hard pressed on all sides. I will feel the pressures of this life, but this jar (me) will never be crushed! I will be confused, but I will know that God knows what to do. He will "father me" through all my confusing situations! I will be knocked down but I will know that God has not left my side and I will get back up. He will carry me through! The "for sure's" of life will always be there. But the flip side is that everything will be O.K. in the end. I will be O.K. because God's power and presence is in me. All my trials, risks and humiliations are perfect opportunities for Christ to demonstrate His power through me! What a powerful and freeing truth to know. I pray the Lord blesses you today with this same truth!