How To Overcome Life’s Difficulties

We all feel we have had our share of DIFFICULTIES, and some of us feel we have had more than our share.

Illus: Many times we feel like the man who was married to a beautiful woman, but they had difficulties in their marriage. Nothing seemed to be going right for him.

But, one day as he was walking along he came across this frog that said to him, “Hey mister, kiss me and I will turn into a beautiful princess.” The man looked at the frog, he picked it up and put it in his coat pocket without saying a word.

Later, the frog stuck its head out of his pocket and said, “No kidding mister, kiss me and I will turn into a beautiful princess.” The man just ignored the frog, but shoved it back into his pocket.

Later that day, the frog stuck its head of the man’s pocket and again said, “Really mister, kiss me and I will turn into a beautiful princess.” The man looked at the frog and said, “Listen frog, I do not doubt what you say, but at this stage of my life, I believe I would just as soon have a talking frog as a lovely princess in my life.”

A lot of us are like that man. We are at a place where WE ARE NOT SURE what we want or what we need.

Let us look at two things about life’s difficulties. First there is the...

I. OVERLAPPING OF DIFFICULTIES.

It seems that life is filled with one DIFFICULTY after another. It matters not where you live, who you know, what you have, or what family you belong to; everyone experiences difficulties in this life.

Illus: Now you would think rulers of countries would be exempt from this, but even they suffer difficulties. For instance, the members of the Royal Family of Britain have the best of what life has to offer, yet we constantly hear reports of DIFFICULTIES they experience.

We all know there are many difficulties we have no control, whatsoever, over. These are as much a part of life as breathing is. In a few minutes we will discover how to be OVERCOMERS when we have to face the UNAVOIDABLE DIFFICULTIES.

However, there are some DIFFICULTIES that come our way that are the result of our own doings.

Some come because we simply do not face reality.

A. The myth problem.

That is, many have been raised in a “Fairy Tale” world.

Illus: A young girl often starts life having her parents tell her Cinderella stories. Remember, Cinderella had some problems, then one day a young, handsome prince came along and whisked her away. All her difficulties she had before she met him vanished, and she and the prince lived happily ever after. The young girl who has heard these “fairy tales” grows up, meets her handsome prince. He marries her, and surprise! She has more DIFFICULTIES than she ever wished to encounter. Her big, beautiful “hunk” turns out to be a big “chump.” All her dreams are shattered because she believed that the man she married would take care of everything and they would live happily ever after.

The same thing often happens to young men.

Illus: The boy is told, “Son, you need to get a good education.” The boy asks, “Why dad?” Dad replies, “So you can live happily ever after.” The boy grows up. He follows his dad’s advice and gets a good education, but soon after receiving that diploma, he begins to run into life’s DIFFICULTIES. All of a sudden he has everything except a “happily ever after” life.

Let us set the record straight. We do not live in a fantasy world, no matter what your television set tells you!

• It does not matter who you marry.

• You can have more degrees than a thermometer, etc.

These things are not going to determine whether or not you will live “happily ever after!”

If we are going to OVERCOME LIFE’S DIFFICULTIES we are going to have to stop living in a dream world. We have to realize that there not a person on earth, no matter how rich or famous, is exempt from life’s difficulties.

Not only do we need to stop living in a “fairy tale” world, we need to begin building our lives on the Word of God.

Job said, Job 5:7, “Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.”

Again, a “fairy tale” life does not exist for anyone. A lot of Christians need to “wake up and smell the coffee.” This IS NOT HEAVEN. One day we shall enjoy such a life.

Rev. 21:4 says, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”