LIFE: When Nothing Is Easy

We all have those times when it feels like everything is a fight. Things that were once easy are now challenging us. What do you do when nothing is easy? Get back to basics.

It’s easy to over-complicate things by over-thinking the issue when the answer is right in front of us. Often times it’s us, other times we may face difficult times with no apparent wrongdoing.

There are times in life when nothing is easy with no explanation.

Really, there is a reason, we just have to take a step back to see it. God has a purpose for everything in our lives. Everything.

I’m reminded of the man born blind. In John 9:2, the disciples of Jesus asked him:

“Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Jesus answered:

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

– John 9:3

WOW. Can you imagine the life of this man? His family? Living uprightly only to be hit with blindness? Finally finding out once Jesus got on the scene that God chose blindness for him so that His power might be put on display?

A clear reminder that our life is not our own.

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

– Galatians 2:20

When nothing is easy, we must remember that our lives are not our own. We must let go of our self-created expectations of what our lives should be, remembering that we have been bought with a price (I Corinthians 6:19-20).

We can’t get so accustomed to the easy times that we can’t handle the tough times. Being chosen vessels to display God’s power requires that we must be willing to accept the good as well as the bad (Job 2:10).

When life is hard, ask yourself: Am I facing this situation in a way that God might be glorified in the midst of my difficulty?

Maybe God is aiming to use your situation to show an unbelieving world that God and His power are still very much real and in full effect today.

Our tough times are bigger than us. If everything was always easy for us, how impactful would we be to a hurting world? They would look at us and think: Oh please, you don’t understand- You haven’t seen the trouble I’ve seen.

The message is clear and the impact is made when we are able to glorify God though we are facing the same struggles as others. As Christians & followers of Christ, we aren’t exempt from troubles. The difference is that we aren’t left to face them alone:

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

– John 16:33

So, what do you do when nothing is easy?

Take a step back to consider what God is aiming to teach you. Remember that God will never put more on us than we can bear (I Corinthians 10:13). Remember that God works all things for our good (Romans 8:28). There is nothing that is happening in our lives right now that God isn’t aware of.

When we really begin to realize just how much He loves us, we know without a doubt that He will use every circumstance for our good- even those that seem to hurt us. God’s goal is never to hurt us, but to help us, to humble us, to grow us up in Christ in every way (Ephesians 4:15).

There is a purpose for our difficult times.

When I cry out to Him, He reminds me: He works all things for my good (Romans 8:28); I are more than a conqueror through Him who loved me (Romans 8:37); and greater is he that is in me, than he that is in the world (I John 4:4).

Gets me every time.