Philippians 1:12–I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 

It is a natural reaction of discomfort, hardship, or prolonged suffering, to be engrossed by what has happened to us.  Yet it is a sign of spiritual maturity, to go through whatever it is, and take the mindset that God is using my hardship to benefit others. Then it is up to us, in the love we profess towards God, to actually share what we have learned, so others won’t stumble and we don’t live as victims…

If you are a mentor, a parent, teacher, or any person of influence by virtue of your “position”, we generally use the things we have experienced, to help others to avoid our mistakes, or be encouraged by our “victories”.  Being in such “positions” actually help us avoid being too engrossed in ourselves.  So we can allow our difficult experiences to be looked at outwardly, eventually for others benefit, instead of intensively inwardly only for our own.

One of the toughest combinations to deal with is a immature individual who has gone through hardship.  Because they are used to focusing on how everything benefits them, the reality of hardship makes no sense.  But it only makes no sense, if our mind is not like the apostle Paul’s, and how God was using his imprisonment for others benefit…

In other words, the apostle Paul was in a terrible personal hardship, but what enabled him to have joy in the midst of circumstances, was the good that was coming out of his hardship for others!  The reality of life has to eventually be miserable, given the promises of hardship,  if our mind never gets beyond how we feel about things, to what good can come out of it, to benefit others for Christ sake…

God never meant for our hardships to paralyze us so much, that we live in the misery of how it feels.  But calls us to have the mind of Christ, and realize we are here for the sake of others, to be a witness of God’s grace to overcome and exalt Him!

In His Love, Ld