FRUSTRATION Frustration has led me to porn a million times. The Bible says to "Let your moderation be known to everyone. But I ignore that. Frustration rears it's ugly head when we overindulge in greed, selfish ambitions, games and many other things. America pushes us to be rich, successful, and to be a winner. And we need to do it all, with a perfect body. If we buy into what they say, we will be frustrated. On the other hand sometimes we get frustrated because we don't do the things we should do. Examples: Not reading the Bible, not praying enough, not paying "any" attention to our finances, and health. Or worse yet, forgetting to treat others with love. We know that the Bible wants us to be hot, not lukewarm in our relationship with God. But in some ways the Bible wants us in the middle with many other things. Not greedy, but working to have enough. Not focusing on being # 1, but working to be a worthy Christlike example in everything we do. Not worrying about winning in life, unless it is winning souls or winning in loving others. Lastly we get frustrated by unrealistic expectations. We think "The answer" to all of life's problems will be solved by things like: 1. Pleasure. 2. Money. 3. Career. 4. Education. 5. Success. Nope, Jesus is the answer. Everything else is an empty illusion. But even when we know that we still may need to cut something huge out of our life to give Him enough room in us. And we may need to start doing some of the things we know we should be doing. A wise man once said: Identify what frustrates you. Then make the changes and get control of your life.
We pray: “Father, please fix my finances, fix my relationships, fill in the blank with what you want to be fixed today. Then sometimes, the day ends and nothing is fixed. We want a perfect life, but if we had one we could never help anyone else. Joseph was thrown in jail, and later he saved the Israelites. I bet Joseph asked God what He wanted when he was thrown into jail. I bet he said, “Your will be done, Lord.” I think he prayed and prayed and was fully in the presence of God because of his response. I think he fully trusted God right at the exact moment when it appeared that God had forsaken him. Like Joseph, Job refused to give up on God in his highest moments of frustration. His finances were gone, his important relationships were gone. At his very worst he said, “Blessed be the Name of the Lord.” At the most frustrating part of his life, he refused to give up on God and sin. But Job's story did not end that way. He turned from sin in his frustration, worshiped and praised God, and after a lot of waiting, he was blessed more than ever. Last night, I thought I went too far yesterday when I said, “No exceptions to the rule to turn aggressively from sin.” But today in my frustrations I realize, that is exactly what Job would do. That is exactly what Joseph did do. When Joseph made no exceptions, a country was saved. When Job made no exceptions he became the most blessed man in the land. Today I am frustrated, and today I am going to pray and ask God to fix everything. And if He doesn't fix everything today, I am going to think about Joseph and Job. Think about how they reacted. Think about how their stories ended. Then hopefully I will realize that God has a plan for me. And that if my life is perfect... I probably won't be ready to execute that plan. But if my reaction to life's frustrations are correct, my story just might end victoriously as well.
