Do you ever get so frustrated with life that you simply throw your hands into the air and scream, “I’m done! I’m out! I can’t take this anymore.” Perhaps you’re dealing with a difficult child, a unique work problem, some illness or disease, or perhaps you’ve been giving 110% in a relationship that seems to be going nowhere. You’re tired, upset, and just want to quit. What do you do? Where do you turn? Well, a few thoughts:
- Preach the Truth to Yourself – Let me be clear: It is a lie from the pit of Hell that your life and what you’re doing with your life doesn’t matter. Here’s the Truth: Your life matters because God designed your life to matter, and what you’re doing with your life (as long as it doesn’t involve axe-murdering people and other forms of debauchery and wickedness) matters because God designed all that you do to reflect His glorious grace (cf. 1 Cor. 6:20 and 1 Cor. 10:31). In other words, you were fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps. 139:14) and all that you do, as a believer in Jesus Christ, has the potential of reflecting your status as a trophy of God’s grace (Eph. 2:4-7). Preach these truths to yourself often and with zeal. These are truths worth getting excited about! These are truths worth preaching over and over and over again, especially when you’re ready to give up and quit.
- Reorient Your Life Around God and His Word – In a nutshell, your life is not all about you! So when frustration strikes, beware of self-pity. That is to say, the mentality that screams: “Woe is me! I suffer more than all of thee!” This mentality is a close cousin to the action that leads to giving up and quitting. Indeed, self-pity is sin. It’s just that simple…it’s sin. It’s selfish to become so introverted that you think life is all about you and that life should work like you think it should work. In moments of frustration and doubt, consciously and intentionally reorient your life around God and His Word. Realize that life is not all about you; it’s about God and His glory. Realize that life will go wrong. After all, we live in a fallen world because of sin and selfishness, but Jesus is greater than sinners and grace is greater than sin! If you give up and throw in the towel, you’re essentially saying that your life and your problems are too BIG for God to handle. This is heresy. This is sin. This results in a me-centered universe, not a God-centered universe.
- Bathe Yourself in Gospel Hope – Ahh! There is hope! Real hope. True hope. God-honoring, Christ-exalting hope for the believer in Jesus Christ. And it doesn’t center around a better set of circumstances or all your problems in this life going away. Forget Joel Osteen and the demonic delusions of the Prosperity Gospel! Our hope is built on the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Because Jesus died, was buried, and rose again, we have a future inheritance that can’t be taken away from us (1 Peter 1:3-5). We can endure any amount of difficulty and frustration here on earth because our final destination is a perfect reality in Heaven, not a better reality here on Earth. In fact, all of the frustrations and difficulties here on Earth are designed to whet our appetites for this future hope, namely, being in Heaven with Jesus forever. Bottom Line: We endure difficulties here on Earth because of the JOY that is set before us (Heb. 12:1-2).
Prairie Flower, life is tough. Life gets hard and very difficult. But we press on! Why? Because this is God’s will for our lives (Phil. 3:14). Don’t give up. Keep going! To do so speaks volumes about a God who is infinitely greater than your life and all the problems that plague it.