Roll With the Punches!

I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13

There’s a spiritual disease you need to be inoculated against—hardening of the attitudes. It’s a disease that makes you think your opinion is the only right one. And as long as life cooperates with you, you’re fine, but when it doesn’t, you charge ahead from one brick wall into another, bruised and bloodied, until you quit in frustration. Then you start blaming others, life, the devil, or God. Your faith may be well-intentioned, but faith without flexibility is just failure looming! Experienced kayakers know how to perform the ‘Eskimo roll’. It’s a technique that enables you to roll 360 degrees under the water and up again without drowning. It’s the strategy Paul used to overcome the challenges he faced in life. ‘…I have learned the secret of living in every situation…’ (v. 12). He didn’t acquire it naturally, or learn it at a ‘flexibility seminar’ or get it from a guru. He learned it in the rough-and-tumble school of patience, persistence, humility, self-denial, dedication and confidence in God. As a result he rolled with the punches of persecution, hunger, poverty, prison, and execution, never abdicating, while demonstrating how to ‘rejoice in the Lord always…’ (Philippians 4:4). When faith collides with reality, it flexes and holds on until victory emerges. It’s like a tree that bends in the storm, then bounces back. ‘I have learned…I am ready for anything through…the One who lives within me!’ (Philippians 4:12-14). So learn to roll with the punches!

Prayer
Heavenly Father, help me hold on during the times of change and turmoil – and be thankful in them knowing that You are with me and always bring me through victorious. In Jesus’ Name, Amen