Encore - 983 - Dealing With Difficulty - 1 Peter 4:12-13

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. This is another one of those episodes where I'm mostly talking to me. I hope you enjoy it. 1 Peter 4:12 & 13, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exaltation.”    So I study and contemplate and think about joy. I enjoy the joy that God has given me as I've learned to integrate more of my life, my daily work life and my daily living with Jesus. I wish I had done a better job of that when I was younger and when my faith was newer, and that's part of the reason why I'm involved with Follower of One at all. I want to help us integrate our faith in our work so that we may rejoice with exaltation as he says here at the end of this verse. But he's giving us tips for dealing with difficulty.    Tip number one: do not be surprised at the difficulties that you face. He says “the fiery ordeal among you”, that difficulty comes upon you for your testing. God is using this to strengthen us. You know as well as I do that we get stronger at anything by lifting above our weight, by trying to do more than we are equipped to do, our muscles get torn down, and then they heal back stronger.    We're working out our faith in the same way by facing the fiery ordeals that come upon us for our testing. But when I look at it like it's some strange thing that was happening to me, my expectation is I'm living the good life. My expectation is this should be easy. It should take less time. I always seem to plan for the ideal situation, and then I'm surprised, as though some strange thing were happening to me, as he says in this verse.    And he's reminding us if we can create in ourselves this attitude that comes from Jesus, but if we can create it and say “This comes upon me for my testing, it's not a strange thing. It's part of God's plan”, then to the degree that I can share the sufferings of Jesus, I get to rejoice, so that I can see His glory through my life. When I see His glory through my life, I experience His joy.    I enjoy doing these daily devotionals. I don't do them as often as I'd like, but I just don't want you to go nuts listening to my voice all the time. I hope that these are helpful, because I struggle with this whole idea of following Jesus in the difficult times. I really want the easy job, I want the easy shift. But it's in the difficulty that I get to rejoice, because His glory is revealed.   When I do what Jesus would have me do in my workplace, in the difficulties of my daily life, Jesus is glorified. People go, “Well, why are you doing this?” And I get to tell them about my relationship with Jesus.   I get to glorify God, and then I can rejoice with exaltation. I can enjoy watching God work through me when I am not surprised by the difficulties that face me. I'm preaching to me again, please remember, but maybe this will help you too. Let's look at our circumstances today as the weight Jesus is loading on the bar for us, and it's ours to push. It's ours to lift.    Let's not look as though some strange thing were happening to us, but let's face our difficulties with joy and trust Jesus. Now, maybe you need some help with that. And you can reach out to me at followerofone.org, you can reach out to mike@followerofone.org. I'd be happy to help you to pray for you to do whatever we can. We probably need to create a page where we can share prayer requests.    But I want to encourage you if you need prayer, let me know. And people from our team will pray for you, And so will I. Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for looking for ways to integrate your life and Jesus’ in such a way that He becomes visible.   And any way you want to do that, we can help you. We’re trying to help people do this better all the time at followerofone.org. You can check it out over there. Thanks very much for being a minister in your marketplace.