Life is hard but often times our perceptions make life harder than it needs to be. The disciples were arrested for preaching Christ. Though they were tortured, they chose to rejoice (Acts 5:40) and to continue serving Jesus. They chose to have a kingdom perspective.

As believers, if we lived like heaven is real, almost all our problems will not matter. The things we go through on the earth don’t matter in light of eternity. The reason we are so consumed by the struggles we face is because we are so focused on our emotions, thoughts and the things of this world. Our security should be in Christ, in heavenly things (Colossians 3:1-3; Galatians 2:20).

We are not able to focus on the plan in the pain because we are so focused on the temporary. Pain hurts, life is hard, but God is good!

How we make life harder:
1) By questioning the goodness of God. Because God doesn’t give us what we want, when we want, how we want. God is good ALL the time! No matter what we are facing. The devil gets Eve to question God’s goodness by making her believe that God was withholding something good from her (Genesis 3:4). Many of us take scriptures of only what we want to hear. Jesus never promised us that life in Him would be problem-free because having trouble is part of life (John 16:33).

2) By expecting a lot from others that we ourselves are not willing to give, and then we become disappointed. We must only expect from God because nothing and no one in this world can satisfy.

The solution to life’s problems is to put God first, then He will work out all other things (Matthew 16:33) and to practise gratefulness. Without thanksgiving to God, our hearts become hardened towards Him (Romans 1:21).

Have faith in God and in His goodness. His nature and character is good! If we question His goodness, we call His character into question. We call Him a liar!

We must trust God (Proverbs 3:5-6), love others (John 13:34-35) and deny ourselves (Luke 9:23-25).

We are going to be with God is eternity and we must have a KINGDOM MINDSET! He saved us so that we can live in eternity with Him!

Life is hard but God is still good!!