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Coping in the Real World - Part 1

by Jerry Ousley  
4/19/2013 / Christian Living


The world can be a very hard place to cope with. We all have our share of problems and challenges. Positive people like to call these "opportunities." I suppose that they can be opportunities to extend ourselves, make ourselves better and challenge us to do things more efficiently and economically. But sometimes we just don't want to be positive and they are not opportunities but problems, you know what I mean?

I used to work for a company taking care of the computer system. It was a small company and granted there are much more elaborate systems in larger companies, but then again, in those companies there is usually a team of people taking on this responsibility. At this company there was just me. We had five servers and a network of around thirty other computers. Let me tell you, that's a challenge!

On a particular day one of our servers went down. Now there wasn't much riding on that server except it was the one used by the majority of the people to access some historical data. But the main use of that server was that it hosted the program that allowed our workers to clock in and clock out. As I said, it went down. I was nearly in panic mode trying to get this thing to come back up. I had people calling me every little bit trying to find out what was going on and I tried to patiently explain to each of them the problem - yes, this wasn't an opportunity it was a problem!

Needless to say, I did manage to get the computer to come back on line and people were happy to be able to do their work again. I was happy too because during the down time I had to clock everyone in and out. That kind of pressure isn't fun. I don't enjoy sweating bullets!

We've all got to cope in this world. Each of us can tell stories about our jobs or our lives that present their own particular set of "opportunities," challenges, and yes, problems. In John 17 the Bible records a prayer of Jesus in which He prays for each of us collectively. He told God that just as He had been sent into this world, each and every believer in Christ has been sent to this world by Jesus. We sometimes paint a rosy picture to those we are trying to persuade to come to Christ. We tell them how great things are going to be; how the Lord will take care of us and how He will answer our prayers and be the answer to all our problems. But you know what? When we come to Christ all of these things don't necessarily happen. We still get stuck with thorns when we pick the roses. There are times when things just aren't so great. We experience situations where it seems that the Lord is a million miles away and hasn't the time to take care of us. The problems just keep on coming, often getting more and more complicated and it seems that God can't even hear our prayers, let alone answer them. Have you ever been there? Maybe you are right now.

It would seem like the best thing for our Lord to do would be to just take us away from this world doesn't it? But guess what? Jesus actually told God that He didn't want us removed from the world. What? Yes, that's right; Jesus told God that He wanted us in this world of problems, challenges, persecutions, and whatever else may be thrown at us. He left us here to be witnesses just like He had been.

He told God that we are not of this world just like He was not of this world. Our citizenship is indeed in Heaven. We are subject to whatever nation and kingdom in which we may live, but in reality, if we have committed our lives to Jesus Christ we are aliens to this world. Our true Kingdom is that of God. So, okay, we understand this. But why won't the Lord just give us a break? Why can't He work a few of those miracles for me? I believe the Lord still works miracles. But there are times the true miracle comes in the life-lesson we learn from our problems, bad situations, and persecutions. In reality, once we have come through them they really do turn into opportunities. They make us grow beyond what we thought we were capable. When we faithfully go through them we become stronger for it, and closer to God.

There are two things our Lord did pray about for us in this prayer. They will help us to get through these situations and we'll talk about them more. But for right now, know that we can cope in the real world because of Christ in us. Everything won't go perfectly and we will face situations that just seem impossible. But know that Jesus was the first to cope in this world. He not only made it through, but paid the price that will also get us through.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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