I\u2019ll admit I have enjoyed watching the \u201cSurvivor\u201d TV series since the show began. The resiliency, determination, grit and shrewdness of the cast amazes me. They go hungry if their team doesn’t win the challenge, they go through the most grueling obstacles, and their living conditions are dreadful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nope! I couldn\u2019t do it. I need my cozy, adjustable bed, my clean water, my refrigerator, and way more comfort than those tough cast members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I do wish to have, however, is the tough will to never give up when tough times come in my daily walk. The role model I wish to immulate is the Apostle Paul. These are his “code of conduct” words and I want to live them.
\u201cThat is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are quite small and won\u2019t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don\u2019t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.\u201d (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bad things happen to good people. The suffering of the people of Maui. Automobile accidents. The disease that the doctors can\u2019t seem to be able to diagnose. The marriage breakup. The loss of a loved one. For goodness sakes\u2026.why do bad things happen to good people? Why do we have to suffer? Why is life so difficult sometimes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As difficult as it is to understand, God\u2019s eyes are not shut to our tough times. He can even use our pain for His purposes. So we should never be surprised if He is using tough times in our lives to test our faithfulness and to toughen us up!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Faithful people keep on keeping on when other people choose to give up. Faithful people are diligent and determined. They are persistent. They change their perspective and focus on God\u2019s promises in his Word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul says we need to get the right perspective when we\u2019re going through a problem. If we want to persist, we shouldn\u2019t look at the temporary problem. We look at the long-term reward. We shouldn\u2019t look at the temporary pain \u2013 but the long-term gain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking at our woes in the short-term view of \u201cWhat\u2019s going on?\u201d only perplexes us. Instead, we should look at the character that we are building because we haven\u2019t given up. We are hanging in there.
God is more interested in what we are becoming than what we are accomplishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe you are facing difficult times right now, then I urge you to read this scripture, memorize it and live it: \u201cSo let us not get tired of doing good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don\u2019t give up.\u201d (Galatians 6:9)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am setting myself in agreement with you today. An agreement that says: \u201cI will keep going. God is working in me and for me and at just the right time, I will reap the harvest. Soon I will be rewarded for my faithfulness to Your promises, dear Lord! I will live in an attitude of gratitude and one day I will reap what I have sowed!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ll admit I have enjoyed watching the \u201cSurvivor\u201d TV series since the show began. The resiliency, determination, grit and shrewdness of the cast amazes me. They go hungry if their team doesn’t win the challenge, they go through the most grueling obstacles, and their living conditions are dreadful. Nope! I couldn\u2019t do it. I need…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1223,1210,12196,1769,27655,27653,27656,27657,24468,11509,40,17674,3068,6849,2451,27641,27642,901,6591,17789,27654],"class_list":["post-18572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-attitude-of-gratitude","tag-blog","tag-challenge","tag-christian","tag-code-of-conduct","tag-dtermination","tag-faithful-people","tag-focus-on-gods-promises","tag-grit","tag-hungry","tag-inspiration","tag-keep-going","tag-never-give-up","tag-persistence","tag-perspective","tag-resiliency","tag-shrewdness","tag-survivor","tag-tough-times","tag-tough-times-dont-last-2","tag-tough-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18572"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18583,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18572\/revisions\/18583"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}