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Written by Deanna Brooks, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Arkansas
Struggles… life can be hard. We can plan, but then something happens that shatters those plans, and it is not always because of something we have done that our plans did not work as we expected; often it is something over which we have no control.
So, where does that leave us?
We can be angry and bitter, or we can try again. It’s easy for someone to say, “Pick up the pieces and move on.” It’s harder when I am the person picking up the pieces and trying to make the best decision about what to do next when it seems every way is blocked.
It took Thomas Edison 2,774 tries until he got the right filament for the light bulb—one that would burn for more than a few minutes.
When an assistant complained they were learning nothing, the reply was, “Oh, we have. We’ve learned over 2,000 ways that don’t work.”
Can we imagine a world without the light bulb? It’s something we take for granted… as a necessity… but how different would our lives be if he had given up?
Having a positive attitude in looking at what might be considered a failure will help us work through the problem.
When a butterfly emerges from the chrysalis, it struggles. Its wings are weak and wet, but it is in breaking through those strands of silk that the wings gain strength, allowing it to fly. If someone tries to help by cutting the silk threads of the chrysalis, the butterfly will die within minutes. It needs the struggle to be healthy.
It is in our struggles that we grow… even when we don’t like the process.
Romans 5:3-5 (ESV) reads,
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Suffering… endurance… character… hope.
Financial struggles can make us more compassionate toward those who have less than we do and help us learn to budget.
Health struggles make us thankful for medical care and for better health when it comes.
Relationship struggles help us appreciate those friends or relatives who encourage us.
Think about the struggles some of those in the Bible experienced:
Noah and his family lost everyone they knew in the flood. When the door of the ark was opened, they stepped into a world where there was no one else.
Sarah was barren, longed for a child, and was mocked by her handmaiden.
Naomi lost her husband and both sons while living in a foreign land.
David found himself in a dark place, far from his shepherd days and glory as king after taking another man’s wife.
Elijah was hated by Jezebel and fled after a “mountain top” experience on Mt Carmel.
Daniel was one of numerous young teens captured and taken to a foreign land… away from family and friends.
The apostle Paul tells of his struggles in 2 Corinthians 11:24-29, yet he was still able to write,
“We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37).
“The Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one” (2 Thes. 3:3).
The writer of Hebrews gives this assurance, “He who promised is faithful” (Heb. 10:23).
We belong to the Father, and Jesus is interceding for us. When struggles come, we need to remember the words written long ago by David, “The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Ps. 118:6)
We have the assurance that God is faithful, that Jesus is our Advocate, and that the Spirit lives in us, so let’s use these struggles to live as “children of Light”! (Eph. 5:8)
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Written by Aileen Bonilla, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Ecuador
“And I promise to be faithful to you in sickness and in health, in abundance and in scarcity, and to love and respect you all the days of my life until death do us part.”
We all know these beautiful words, whether because we are married or, if you are not married, I am sure you have heard them at someone else’s wedding or in a movie. In the same way, God uses human language to better communicate with us. He uses our traditions, and one of them is the marriage vow, those promises we make to our future husband. In fact, God compares marriage to the relationship we should have with Him.
He wants us to see Him as a spouse whom we always seek to please with passionate, respectful, faithful, and unbreakable love. For this reason, faithfulness is very important for God since it will “measure” our faith. But what do I mean by faithfulness? This word comes from the Hebrew “emet,” which is associated with paternal kindness. This quality or attribute is characteristic of God and is received freely. Furthermore, this quality gives strength to the personal relationship we have with our Creator.
It is easy to understand that we have a God who is faithful to His promises; we know that if He tells us that we will not lack food, we must believe Him and sleep peacefully. However, when we are tested in faithfulness, we must be attentive whether we will always be there for Him. While it is true that this attribute belongs to God by nature, He wants us to be faithful to Him no matter the circumstances we are going through.
For me, this is a hard theme to talk about; during this time of mission alongside my husband, God has tested us in this. Our monetary circumstances have been difficult, and at the beginning of the mission, my oldest son's health was deteriorating. However, we tried to fight day by day with the discouragement that often wanted to take over our minds.
Despite the adverse circumstances and deserts that God allows in our lives, I must realize that these painful processes teach us a lot, even to pray, not more intensely, but to know how to ask. Usually, we pray for God to solve all our problems, but we do not pray for Him to give us the wisdom to seek a solution (James 1:5).
Faithfulness is a gift that we must ask for every day because our nature is to be the opposite. We see this in the people of Israel who were constantly unfaithful to God despite having seen all His wonders.
Like the Israelites, in our time I have seen how easily people go after other gods, reflecting their lack of commitment to God. They do not wish to know their Lord as their spouse. They do not want to study His Word and live in awe of all He has done, but rather, they live in pursuit of earthly things. That is why God demands that we love Him above all things (Deut. 6:5-9), not with a religious love subjected to rituals, but with a pure and sincere love, like the love of a bride—always tender, always fresh.
Are you pursuing this kind of faithfulness in your walk with God as your faithful spouse?