THANKFULNESS OR BITTERNESS

QUESTION: Do you happen to have a gnarly problem in your life that simply will not go

away? There seems to be no solution?

“When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don’t resent them as

intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realize that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the

quality of endurance. But let the PROCESS go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find

that you have become men of mature character with the right sort of independence.” (James 1:2-4 –

Phillips Translation)

How are you handling it?

• Pouting over it?

• Smashing it?

• Trying to ignore it?

• Running away from it?

Or thanking God for it!

… And asking Him to use the problem as a CHISEL in His hand to fashion you into

Christlikeness?

Thankfulness is the mechanism that releases us from the bondage of life’s “UNSOLVABLES,”

thereby giving God permission to use the “UNSOLVABLES” to mold our character into His.

Once we release our anger, our control… our “rights,” God is free to go to work… on us!

Paul’s “UNSOLVABLE” problem was a physical one. Relatively easy perhaps compared to yours.

Three times he asked God to remove the problem to no avail. But in releasing it to God, he

discovered the two resources he most needed to live with his enigma: God’s GRACE and

God’s STRENGTH:

“And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for POWER IS PERFECTED IN WEAKNESS.’ Most

gladly therefore, I will rather boast about my weakness, that the power of Christ may dwell in me… for

when I am weak, then I am strong.” (II Corinthians 12:9, 10b)

“The same sun that softens the butter hardens the clay.” In living with our unresolved issues we

have a CHOICE of becoming softened or hardened: Christlike or embittered.

Again… the choice is ours!