WHEN LIFE IS NOT EASY
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans: “Wanneer dit nie baie maklik gaan nie”
Someone, who I can testify that she and her husband are beautiful children of our Lord, wrote on occasion to me and mentioned about problems in her husband’s business which at the time of her letter to me, was not very good.
She wrote: “We are children of our Lord, but the hard reality is that at the moment it does not go very well at all.”
I would like to share my answer to her with you and who knows, maybe you know someone to whom you want to send this letter.
I would like to encourage you with these words; If there is one thing that you can trust a child of God with, knowing that he/she will be able to handle it – and here I do not talk of someone that is necessarily physically strong – but of someone who keep their eyes truly fixed on Jesus; such a person you can trust with the ‘harsh reality’.
We, as His children, know our Lord and we know what He had written to us:
NUM 23:19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
Well this God, our loving Father, who has written these words to us, also has written these words to you and me – actually I must say; He wrote it especially to you and me – His children of His New Testament:
1 COR 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
Believe me when I tell you – with my experience – that satan will try his best to make life as difficult as possible for a child of our Lord, but how absolutely wonderful to have this certain knowing:
HEB 4:14-16
14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
I am sure that people around us can see that we, as children of the most High God, who recall this verse in our hearts in difficult times of trials and tribulation, can demonstrate the following saying in our lives:
“When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.”
When the going gets tough” is when satan attacks us full on – to make us abandon our principles and to seek other solutions. Yes, to make us give up our faith. A good example is my hero Paul’s life:
2COR 11:24-28
24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea;
26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers;
27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
Now this is ‘tough going’ for that what you believe in and then to keep on believing!
The Word is full of wonderful examples.
In the letter to the Hebrews which I assume my hero Paul wrote, he on occasion pointed out a few of our predecessors. He began to say:
HEB 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
HEB 11:2 For by it the people of old received their commendation.
Then he mentioned a list of our predecessors of whom you can read.
Let’s be honest –
What type of person do you know other than a true Christian, of whom the following can be testified – and keep in mind that this evidence is of a true child of God taken from His Word and we know that God cannot lie.
Then with that revelation in my mind, my spiritual maturity comes in motion.
In other words: “the tough (who is me) gets going”
And I, as I remember that I am in the Hand of a living God, I look at my circumstances and with my hero Paul, I jubilant rejoice:
2COR 4:6-7
6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
Sometimes I suffer really hard. My Jesus also suffered extremely hard. In my life I have been so full of sorrow and I have wept so much because of this high steep mountain I was climbing on occasion. My Jesus also grieved and wept.
To tell the truth, there are more occurrences of Jesus who wept in the New Testament than of any other person. But I have this treasure – this certain knowledge that you have read here today, in my fragile jar of clay within me – and then I rise up again because:
We read these wonderful words that apply to us as children of our Most High God:
2COR 4:8-9
8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed;
perplexed, but not driven to despair;
9 persecuted, but not forsaken;
struck down, but not destroyed;HEB 12:2-3
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
Greetings,
Sakkie