Don’t ever see anything but yourself as your life's biggest problem and challenge to overcome.
That sounds brutal, for sure, but consider this: nothing forces a reaction out of us. Nothing makes us react poorly to an adversity. Nothing compels us to cave into temptation. For that matter, the Apostle James writes, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4 NIV)
The word translated “trials” is the same greek word translated “temptations.” Clearly, then, we choose how we are going to handle both our trials and our temptations. So it is we — our reactions to life’s nasty stuff — who are either generating misery in ourselves or accelerating our growth.
But there is great help available to us. I’ve been reflecting on this verse in Romans 8:26: “…the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”
So when facing trial or temptation, I’ve been praying something like, “Holy Spirit, in my weakness I don’t know how to best pray right now. You pray for me so that how I react to this is what God wants.”
