Difficulties Part 2 Jesus Means Victory Kathryn Kuhlman Overcoming Resentment

Life is a balance. It's never unlimited joy. You know, there's some people who feel as though they expect every day to be a wonderful holiday. Every hour filled with laughter and joy and good times. You know, it's like a youngster going to a circus. Oh, that youngster has the greatest time at a circus. But when it comes to coming back home again and having to sit down and eat their cereal for breakfast and there's discipline, they don't like it. They don't want discipline. They want every day to be a day at the circus. And sometimes I find out that an awful lot of adults are still little children. And they, too, expect every day to be a wonderful circus, a day of laughter, every hour filled with joy. But it just doesn't work that way. It just doesn't. I don't care who you are. I don't care whether you're rich or poor. It just doesn't work that way. Life is a balance. It's never unlimited joy. There'll be sorrow, even tragedy. But the important thing is how you face it. And sooner or later, remember, there will be difficulty because difficulty is one of the facts of human existence. Yet most people look... as though they had no trouble. It's a mark of a sophisticated person not to show outwardly what goes on inwardly. But if you are a part of humanity, remember, there'll be those days when the sun isn't shining. But not one person. I don't care who you are. need ever be defeated, no matter how dark the day, no matter what the problem, no matter what the difficulty. When we have the Spirit of Christ, when we have a living Christ in our hearts and a sense of the presence of God in time of difficulty, we can believe that every difficulty, no matter what that difficulty is, has some good in it. And we can profit. By that difficulty. When you are faced with a difficulty, the wise thing to do is to say to yourself, let me extract from this all the know -how that it contains. And then walk away from it. Leave it. Move on. Get exactly what I am saying. But the trouble with many people is that when difficulty comes, they get bogged down in it. And there's the danger. We resent the pain of difficulty. And yet oftentimes, instead of buckling down to solving it, we just brood over it, continue to carry the thing night and day. We go to... We sleep with it. We awaken the morning with it. Not being able to get victory over it. Almost enjoying it. And after a certain length of time, the difficulty will conquer us and we become a slave to it. After you've done what you can about a problem. And this is one thing that I've learned in my own life. And there is no substitute for experience. Sometimes I think I'm the most practical preacher in the whole world. But maybe I'm practical because all that I know is what I personally have experienced. And I can only give to you what I have experienced. For no person can give to another anything more than what they have actually experienced themselves. And perhaps that's one reason why I'm so very practical in my preaching. And this is what I have learned. After one has done all that one can about a problem, then one has to walk away from it, taking some loss perhaps, suffering some pain certainly. But nevertheless, walk away from it. Oh, sure, the pain doesn't always leave at once. You know what I'm talking about. But walk away from it. Don't carry it. It'll conquer you if you do. The other day, for example, I was talking about the young man who had asked to see me a fine young man. but full of anger and hate and resentment because of a difficulty he had. Oh, I find so many people recently with resentments. Resentments. We are bringing up an age of resentment and hate and greed. I was thinking the other day, in fact, just a very few minutes ago, I said to the engineer here in the studio, you know, I think the greatest sin in the world is the sin of jealousy. I don't know of a sin that is greater than the sin of jealousy. And then following that is the sin of greed. Sometimes I wonder whether greed perhaps is the greater the two sins. I say jealousy first because of the very first sin that we have any record of whatsoever in the Word of God. And then... Greed. It's hard to separate the two. Then there comes that sin of resentment and hate. And you can hardly separate those two. Where there's resentment, there's hate. Where there's hate, you'll find resentment. And the young man who was talking with me was a fine young man, but he was full of anger and full of hate and full of resentment because of a difficulty he had. And his story was this. Having worked hard for a certain company over a period of time, he had wanted a promotion to a certain position higher up. And because of some feud, that position was not giving him the position that he wanted. And he was, as he put it, maliciously double -crossed. And he told me at great length about the man who had double -crossed him. He said, this had made me lose my faith in business leadership. I no longer have any faith in business leadership. I've lost my faith in the integrity of top management. And he went on and on. Well, I asked. Have you a good job now? Yes, replied. I have? I'm with another company. As a matter of fact, it's a better job than the one I had before. With my old company, the promotion I should have had, that should have been given me, was the last that I could have gotten. I could not have gone any higher. It was a fine spot, but actually it was a dead end. Where now, while I don't quite make so much money, the opportunities are... Unlimited. And I really see a future for myself. And so I said, um, and you're still fussing about the old situation? Look, young man, don't tell me that you aren't smart enough to see that in the long run, that's what you were fussing and fuming about. In the long run, the fact that you didn't get the position that you wanted could really be the greatest thing in the world that happened to you. You're so short -sighted. But he said the man double -crossed me. He did this thing to me. I was double -crossed. I did not deserve the treatment I got. Why did I have to get that kind of a deal, you know? Oh, you've heard it. I can understand how you feel, how hurt you must be, I said. But don't be so short -sighted. Look beyond today. Look beyond the man who did you dirty. Look beyond that. You're only hurting yourself. You're being your worst enemy. You want to know something? Just throw this in for good measure. Most people are... their own worst enemy. Now, let's just be quiet and think on that statement that I just now made. Is it possible that right now in the circumstances that you find yourself in, that perhaps you are your own worst enemy? The only person that you're really hurting is yourself. If you're carrying that hate, if you're carrying that resentment, if you're carrying those unkind thoughts in your mind, if you're a jealous person, if you're a greedy person, remember, you're only destroying yourself. You are your own worst enemy. You know? I turned to the young man and said, you had just told me that you have a greater opportunity where you are now than you had before. And yet you're a very angry man. Yes, but he said, suppose somebody had done that to you. Just suppose. Just suppose somebody had done that to you. And I said, how do you know? Maybe they have. That's the reason I can. talk to you about this and understand it a little better. Maybe they have. That's the reason I can see the advantages of just walking away. Mm -hmm. Then I gave him a quotation from a little booklet that I had given to me years and years ago. I've always kept it in my desk. And I do not know who wrote it. I cannot give the one credit. I wish I knew. But this is what the quotation is. Never chew your pills. Swallow them. For chewing makes them more bitter still. You know, that's really wonderful advice. Never chew your pills. Did you ever take a pill? That's the reason they tell you to take water when you take a pill. Because you swallow it and you don't get the taste of it. The pill can be so bitter. If you didn't take the water to wash it down and just took it in your mouth and chewed it, you'd be amazed how... Bitter, that pill would be chewing it. And so when someone's mistreated you, there's been an injustice done. And just take a little water of human kindness and just swallow it. Never chew your pills. Swallow them. For chewing makes them more bitter still. If you've been mistreated. Don't chew it. Swallow it. And then forget it and turn your attention to the opportunities which are yours. One of the greatest facts of human life is that difficulty sometimes comes upon us for healthful purposes. I'm sure if you'd review your life systematically and try to see it objectively, you'd find that some of the greatest things that have ever happened to you have been your difficulties. For these are the things that made you stronger and wiser and have given you more purpose and direction to your life. Sometimes a hard experience can be the greatest thing that ever happened to your life. Looking back over my own life, and I hate to be personal about this thing, but so help me, it is true. Oh, if I would ever sit down and really and truly write the story of my life. It would be unbelievable. You would think it was fiction. You could scarcely accept it as being truth. But I don't go around and tell people about the experiences that I have been through since I was 14, 15, 16, 17, I'm not going to tell you how many years. But when I look back now, that's the reason I can be a practical person now. That's the reason I am where I am today, by the grace of God. It was the hard things that made me strong. Those times that I would grit my teeth and say, no matter what happens, this thing is not going to defeat me. I could have been out of the ministry before I ever began. I could have... become discouraged and been out of the ministry before I was 18 years of age. Looking back now, before I had reached the age of 25, I could well have gone down in defeat and in discouragement and said, I can't take it any longer. I just can't. But I'll tell you something. I never chewed my pills. I just swallowed them and kept going. Uh -huh. God is our refuge and strength. A very present help in trouble. That's the word of God. One way that he helps us is through the capacity that he gave us to think. The idea that we ought to stop chewing our pills is a very simple example of it. With the wonderful mind that God has given each of us. Use the mind prayerfully and in harmony with his laws. And we can outsmart our difficulties. You can outsmart your difficulties. There's always a strategy by which a difficulty can be handled. I really believe our minds are such that we have in us the ability to handle any difficulty. I believe that. It is my firm conviction. This is a part of my faith in my Heavenly Father. I believe that if He had not equipped me with the power, and the resources to overcome a certain problem, a certain difficulty, a certain sorrow, a certain disappointment in my life, He would not have permitted that thing to have happened to me. For with that difficulty, or with that problem, He made a way of victory, or He would not be a gracious, tender Heavenly Father. He makes a way of escape for every temptation. I believe that is a part of my theology. That's my faith in my Heavenly Father. I am never confronted with a temptation, but what He gives me the power to overcome that temptation in Himself. If I want to be victorious, over every difficulty, all I have to do is to turn to him, the one who knows no defeat, and permit him to handle it. It's that simple. I'm talking to you about something that is the most simple, the most practical thing in the whole world. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Oh, you say, but I'm so weak. Now, you know, that sounds very humble to say you're weak, but... Actually, it isn't true humility at all. It's just a denial of God in you. You only think you're weak. You really have great strength. You'll be able to draw on it and act strong when you get to thinking you are strong. The trouble with many of us is that we do not make up our mind to control ourselves and direct our own lives and permit... God to direct us. Did you ever think of that? We let ourselves be pushed around by circumstances and events like little chips in a little dream. We're not meant to be pushed around by circumstances. You were not made to be governed by your difficulties. We are children of God. If I could only get every Christian to see that you are God's child, that God is your heavenly father. It always pays to be honest with yourself. And I've come to the conclusion there are very few people living today who are honest with themselves. As long as I'm honest with myself, I'll be honest with God. And there's some people who will never be honest with God because they're never honest, really honest with themselves. They'll never look themselves directly in the face. No matter what happens, I know of someone that no matter what happens, that one always has a way of putting the blame on somebody else. Always. I don't care what it is. They can be so wrong, so dead wrong, and yet they'll put the blame on somebody else and talk so hard and strong that while you're talking to them, they almost have you convinced that they were right and the other person was wrong, and yet you know yourself that they were so wrong. They'll live and die never really being honest with themselves. Mm -hmm. It pays to be honest with yourself and consider whether you yourself are the cause of your difficulty. And nine times out of ten, you'll find you are. Be honest and see what it is that you do that causes the difficulty or prevents a solution of the difficulty. Then take hold of your life and handle it. You do not have to go down in defeat. With Christ in you, you will not only be a conqueror, but more than conquerors through Christ who loves you.