Dr. Thamsing Lamkang
You cannot get anywhere in life if you do not have a purposeful goal setting life. If you let the days go by without any aim, nowhere to go, then life is running through your fingers without you even noticing. Life is not a rest area. If God saved you, it is not for you to believe that everything has been done and you can live out your days saved, holy and satisfied. That is very selfish motivation, and of course, against God’s will.
There are a lot of battles to win, lots of goal to achieve, lots of sins to overcome, lots of difficult situations you need to go through, temptations where you have to come out victorious. They are all part of your own learning process and they all help you to grow up as a person, as a son or daughter of God. All these situations will teach you to be more like the Lord Jesus Christ.
Just think for a moment of a person you would like him to know the Lord; or think of a difficult situation that you believe nobody will be able to solve. Remember a dream that God put in your life and you abandoned when it was impossible to fulfill. Do not think it is too late; do not think it is not worthy to get that goal fulfilled. Pray and struggle to make it happen. Trust in God and He will do it. Remember those two lines in the song:
“My trust does not grow when I clench my fists,
I have learnt to trust, to be free, by His strength…”
Only by the power of God will you manage to get what you have set out to do. Think about your objectives, and mark them very clearly. Think about what you are going to pray and work for. Write it down somewhere! That will help you to give thanks to God for what He is doing in your life. Do not think it is difficult for Him. Trust in Him and He will do it. But always keep in mind that, “If your goal is not clear, you’re muddled”. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this: Psalms 37: 5.
The truth is we all find excuses for losing, so that no one can blame our ineptitude. One coach collected excuses used to blame others and posted them in the dressing room. He was sick of players not taking the blame for their own problems. We can’t seem to help it; when something goes wrong, it’s always someone else’s fault. From earliest childhood we blame our siblings, friends, neighbors, the cat, or the dog before we’ll admit we’ve done wrong.
However, you can’t get on in life if you won’t take responsibility for your actions. The Bible says that he who covers up sin will not prosper, but God will forgive the one who confesses and change his ways. We seldom realize that the first step to conquering sin is recognizing it in ourselves. The day will come when we won’t be able to point the finger at anyone. God will point to us, and we’ll have to give an account of our actions. Each one will carry his own guilt before God; we won’t be able to blame anyone else. What shall we do then? Whenever we hear God’s voice, we look at others. Whenever the Bible shows us our mistakes, omissions or sin, we think its referring to someone else. We point at the other guy.
Meanwhile, God’s word is clear: “Let no man accuse another.” The fault is yours and mine. That’s the only attitude God will accept. [Hosea 4: 4 “But let no one dispute; let no one argue, for my case is against you priest”]. As the saying goes like this, “Before you go out to change the world, walk around your own house three times.”
How do you solve your problems? Worry, frustration, anger and other emotions, are the most common reactions. Years ago someone wrote down their reactions to difficulties; they came up with seven before they found the right one! When things go wrong, be it in personal relationships, situations or with objects, we usually do one of the followings:
• Blame others
• Feel sorry for ourselves. “Poor me, these things only ever happen to me”.
• Desire revenge: “Lord, this is so-and so’s fault. Punish him! Or, just wait till I see them!”
• Anger: This needs no explanation, does it? It’s probably the most common reaction.
• Pray for God to do our own will, not God’s will. “Lord, fix this situation…” we treat God like a ‘fairy godmother’, who awaits our orders.
• Escape: We run as fast as possible from the problem, physical or figuratively. No problem, I am alright etc.
• Apply Psalms 55: 22. David wrote down all these solutions.
Few people know how to battle the obstacles in life. But most people solve their problems by blaming other things. Man has been looking for a scapegoat since the world began. When the first man sinned, his reaction was “The woman you put here with me…” He put the blame on God, and on his wife. The woman then blamed the serpent, and the serpent probably had an excuse in its turn.
To well understand about it, I recommend you to read the whole book of Proverbs, underlining all the verses that speak of complaints, excuses and blames. If you do that in order to get clearer picture and to benefit your future life! It’s fascinating! I learned an enormous amount about how we react to problems by reading Proverbs. It’s true; we often face very great difficulties; situations get out of hand and we ask God, “Why did you let this happen to me?”
God always responds, though sometimes not in the way or at the moment we would like. You know, we should learn to spot the way out of our situation. God allows certain situations in our lives to strengthen and teach us wisdom, so that we will know how to help others. We need to learn to surmount our obstacles, since nothing that happens takes God by surprise. That’s how great God is; He can give us peace in spite of our circumstances. In spite of the obstacles. When bad things happen in life, always remember that, “It didn’t happen to us, but for us!”
Blessing in the Lord!
