Troubles take many forms in our lives. Sometimes they take the form of illness or death. Sometimes they take the form of financial losses or disappointments. Whatever their form, troubles do come and it's our attitude toward them that is most important. Trouble can make us bitter or better, depending on our attitude.
How are we to react to problems? I offer three suggestions to guide you:
First: improve yourself! Troubles are often instruments of God to make us finer, sweeter, and stronger people. Volumes enough to fill a library could be collected about people who have been made better by trials. Consider Helen Keller, who went blind, deaf, and mute as a baby, said, “I thank God for my troubles, for through them I found myself, my work, and my God.” Trouble often knocks a lot of nonsense out of us, induces humility, and cuts us down to size. So when troubles come, use them to become a better person.
Second: judge yourself! Though some troubles come to refine our character, others come because of sin in our lives. Make no mistake about it—God will punish sin. He will either do it in the present through troubles now or in eternity. I am persuaded that more troubles than we care to admit are due to sin in our lives. Examine yourself. Are your problems due to sin? If so, repent of them, confess them to God, and begin to serve him sincerely.
Third: commit yourself! When troubles come, avoid the temptation to feel sorry for yourself. Self-pity is a great malady. Don’t relate your sorrows to everyone you see.
Put your life and your troubles in God’s hands. Trust your life to him as you trust your money to the bank. God, who created all things, will take care of you. How often we look on God as our last and most feeble resource! We go to him because we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven.