So many times, we give testimonies about the victories in our lives. We hear people saying God freed me from something or healed me from a sickness. I believe that these are extremely important, but they aren’t the only things that we should be grateful for. As much as I am grateful for the deliverance and healing, I am just as grateful that He doesn’t rescue me from the struggles.  In 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 it says, “And he said unto me, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”

In many blogs I have talked about how suffering is a part of a good Christian life.  John 15:20 says, “Remember the word that I said unto you, ‘The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.”  So my testimony today will not be one of overcoming but one of patience, love, and faith.  Today I want to talk about a specific type of struggle in our lives: people.

So I don’t know how many of you have teenagers in your house, but I have two boys. One is 16, and the other is 13.  If you have teenagers in your life, and you’ve never been frustrated, confused, and amazed all at the same time, then you are a better person than me.  In all of my years of counseling, I have never seen such intelligent people do such irrational things. I mean where else in life can you lecture someone about why Nerf sword fights in the house are a bad idea (mind you the TV had already been broken less than a month before), and then be lectured to about why the Emancipation Proclamation was not really a just solution.

I love both of my boys very much, but at times, it gets difficult.  My youngest has been having some struggles with concentration in school.  We have tried all kinds of things that help him. Sometimes it helps.  Sometimes it does nothing at all. Recently, it has been very frustrating for me. I have probably not handled the situation as well as I could. One day while I was frustrated with my son, God gently reminded me that I was His teenager.  I was lecturing my son about not having follow through, and God was showing me all the areas in my life where I do not have follow through with Him.

As I was telling my son that he was going to have to suffer the consequences of his choices, God reminded me that He loved me enough to let me suffer the consequences of my choices as well.  As I said earlier, this is not a testimony of overcoming.  As I write this, I am still trying to figure out how to help my son. I am also asking for forgiveness for sins that still persist in my life. The testimony here is that God isn’t going to take difficult situations, and especially people, out of our lives; but He will use them to bring us closer to Him.

So here are the things that God has shown me.  First, difficult people in my life force me to return to prayer or to more misery and self-control. Often times, when everything is going great in my life, I think, “I built this.”  However, difficult situations with people in my life remind me that I am in control of nothing, and only a return to a reliance on Christ can heal this.

Second, these difficult situations remind me that I am Christ’s difficult person, and He still loves me. This example shows me that I can still show His love to people in my life that I struggle with.

The third thing that difficult people in my life show me is that His grace and the patience He teaches me is sufficient if I turn back to Him.  I will leave you with this from Matthew 5:43-48: “Ye have heard that it hath been said, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.’

But I say unto you, ‘Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.  For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?  And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

– Written by Jeremiah

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