Title Overcoming difficult circumstances
Contents
title ; overcoming difficult circumstances
main text ; Job 1:13-22
A woman who was an alcoholic and a prostitute had two daughters.
From an early age, the two daughters grew up watching their mother's life clearly. When they grew up and became adults, they left their mother and became independent.
Years later, the mother visited her eldest daughter after asking questions. But, sadly, the eldest daughter had become a prostitute just like her, and moreover, she was an alcoholic.
The mother asked her daughter with a sad heart. "Baby, how did this happen?"
Then the daughter looks at her resentfully and replies. "The reason I'm like this is because I was raised by my mother."
The mother soon set out to find her second daughter.
But she was a good housewife in a good family. The mother could not overcome her joy and asked her daughter. "Hey, how did this happen?"
Then the daughter answers. "The reason I'm like this is because I was raised by my mother."
Guys, in the same age, in the same environment, under the same mother, one became an alcoholic and a prostitute, and the other became a great housewife.
And, to my surprise, the two daughters' responses were the same. "The reason I'm like this is because I was raised by my mother."
In other words, the eldest daughter followed her mother's wrong way of thinking, wrong actions, wrong habits, and wrong words, and eventually became like her.
However, the younger daughter, seeing her mother's wrong side, vowed not to do that to herself, and tried to lead a good life and good thoughts, and always tried to take care of herself properly. As a result, the youngest daughter was able to become a good person, a good wife, and a good mother, even in difficult circumstances.
Folks, too many people say that it is because of someone who is wrong, or because of bad circumstances or bad luck.
So, it is often seen that people grind their teeth and grudge against a certain person who made them like that, and sometimes they lose their reason as a human being and fight without covering their eyes to get revenge, often causing major accidents and accidents.
Not long ago, in Daegu, South Korea, a subway arson incident occurred and many people died.
At that time, as we listen to the screams of people trapped in a burning train as they suffer death on their cell phones, we are gripped with a very miserable heart and the pity that this happened.
And it can be seen that the person who committed the arson was a person with a disability who was possessed by a great resentment.
The man thought he was so disabled because doctors didn't treat him properly when he fell ill. So I had a deep resentment against the doctor, and I always said that I would set fire to the hospital where he was.
And the sparks of resentment hit innocent people, destroying so many lives, breaking so many homes, and leaving indelible scars in their hearts.
However, we often see people around us who faced great trials and tribulations, but rather overcame such circumstances and lived a life of victory.
Among them was a man named Harold Russell. He was paralyzed during World War II while fighting in Europe as a paratrooper, but was struck by a cannonball and lost both arms and was crippled. For a while he falls into a devastating setback.
And, “I am now a useless piece of meat!” I spent days of despair by myself.
However, he gradually began to feel the truth about him, who had no arms.
When I think about it, I have come to realize that I still have more than I have lost. Then, gradually, I found stability and peace of mind, and I was able to find the title of thanks in the midst of difficult circumstances.
And when the doctor makes him a prosthetic hand, he can finally write and type with it. Of course, there were many difficulties and failures to get to that point. However, he overcame them all and eventually becomes the protagonist of human triumph. And his story is finally made into a movie, and he appears as a crippled person himself.
He starred crippled in this film, which eventually earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor. The movie is titled 'The Best Year of Our Lives'.
To which he replied: “My physical disability has been the greatest blessing to me. You do not always count what is lost, but think of what is left and give thanks to God, and when you put it to good use, you can be compensated tenfold for what is lost.”
Ladies and gentlemen, the musician Beethoven as we know him was paralyzed at the end of his life. It was hopeless for anyone to think that the musician was deaf.
However, he wrote a choral symphony despite the adversity, and finally, under his direction, the choral symphony was performed to a large audience.
When his conduct was over, the hall seemed to leave with applause and cheers. But Beethoven, who had already lost his hearing, did not hear the cheers. Then, sadly, a colleague turned Beethoven toward the audience. Only then was he able to respond to the enthusiastic cheers of the audience.
In addition, the musician Handel composed the Messiah while paralyzed, and Milton wrote the famous Paradise Lost while blind.
And Hawking, the greatest astrophysicist of modern times, confesses that paralysis actually made him a great astrophysicist. And he says that if he were in good health, he would not have been able to walk the path of a great scholar because he was so engrossed in the enjoyment of life.
Guys, keep that in mind. What makes a difference in your life is not what surrounds you.
The question is how do you respond to that environment. If you are living in a foreign country, how will you deal with unexpected and difficult circumstances?
Would you resent the person who brought you such a bad environment and ruin your own life? Or would you like to live a life of doing your best, finding the subject of gratitude, even in such a difficult environment?
In today's text, we see a man named Job.
He was a man of integrity and honesty, who feared God and turned away from evil. So God was able to present him openly to Satan.
Then Satan speaks accusations to God.
“God, how could Job fear God without cause? Was it not because God had blessed him, his house, and all that he had? will be insulted."
Then God speaks to Satan. "I give all his possessions into my hands. But do not touch his body."
After this happens, Satan comes down to the earth and begins to strike Job's belongings. First, 500 oxen and 500 donkeys were plundered by the Sheba men. Then fire came down from heaven and burned up 7,000 sheep. Then the Chaldeans plundered 3,000 camels. During this time, almost all of the servants died.
And Satan finally reaches out to Job's most precious children. So, while Job's seven sons and three daughters were having a meal at the eldest brother's house, a great wind suddenly struck the corner of the house, and the house collapsed, and all seven sons and three daughters were crushed to death.
Even if one child dies in the world, the hearts of parents are torn. What a great sorrow that 7 sons and 3 daughters who have raised all grown up have become very poor corpses that have completely lost their beautiful appearance as they were rubbed on rubble.
If you are an ordinary person, you would have resented God and left God when such an environment came upon you. But even in this difficult environment, Job bowed down to the ground and worshiped God and confessed this.
"Naked I went out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. The LORD gave and the LORD took away; blessed be the name of the LORD" (Job 1:21).
Guys, I want to ask you a question.
If this situation had come to you too, would you have been able to make such a wonderful confession like Job? Job was able to make such a wonderful confession because he knew and understood the truth properly.
In other words, life is karate. No matter how rich you are, when you go, you have to leave everything behind.
And no matter how much you lose, you never lose. Because I brought nothing into this world. In other words, it was not that I lost what I had, but that God had entrusted it to me for a while and took it back with a meaning.
If you realize this truth, there is no reason to be sad no matter how much you lose everything. Because originally I had nothing.
Therefore, if we have even a cent in our pocket, we can be thankful for it, and even if we are sick, we can thank God for that if we are still breathing. There isn't one.
Because it is the truth that everyone in this world goes that way, without exception.
Ladies and gentlemen, losing money, losing honor, and losing a loved one is not the only unfair thing I am experiencing.
The truth is that no one in this world will ever be in such an environment and experience such an environment. Moreover, since we believe in Jesus and go to heaven after being saved and dying, we can leave this world with praise and thanks even at the moment of death.
Everyone, have you ever experienced any sad and injustice? Are you experiencing the pain of losing the things that you value so much? At this time, your happiness or unhappiness is determined by your attitude.
Guys, keep this in mind once again. What makes a difference in your life is by no means a matter of what surrounds you.
The question is how do you respond to that environment. And the choice is up to you.