For such a time......

I've been struggling with a difficult situation. So, this morning, during my reading time, I picked up the book by Vic Johnson called "Day by Day with James Allen". This book takes the text, "As A Man Thinketh", and uses excerpts from that book to create a daily devotional. I thought this one was perfect timing.

"Focus on Ideas"

"No person can be confronted with a difficulty which he has not the strength to meet and subdue...Every difficulty can be overcome if rightly dealt with; anxiety is, therefore, unnecessary. The task which cannot be overcome ceases to be a difficulty and becomes an impossibility...and there is only one way of dealing with an impossibility - namely to submit to it." - Byways of Blessedness

"Several days ago when I started this I was confronted with a difficulty that I allowed to fill me with a great deal of anxiety. It's not a new difficulty or even a totally unexpected one. But I was faced with a decision that will have long-term ramifications. One of those kind of decisions that we'd rather not make - one of those decisions that makes you want to pull the covers up over your head in the morning.

James Allen's words are so incredibly penetrating on this subject because he's basically saying that there's no problem that we should be anxious about. We can either solve it or it's impossible to solve. Kind of reminds you of the Serenity Prayer doesn't it? 'God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and the Wisdom to know the difference.'

I once heard Rita Davenport give some great advice on handling most of the problems in our life: 'If money can fix it, it's not a problem.' Well, that's great, you say, but I don't have the money to fix it, so I've got a problem. Wrong thinking. Because the truth is you're only one idea away from obtaining whatever amount of money you might need. So instead of focusing on the money you don't have (which will surely result in you attracting more lack into your life), focus on ideas, ideas, ideas.

There's also another great reason not to be anxious about the difficulty you are facing today - it contains a lesson. And once you master it, you will be much stronger and wiser. My long-time hero, Emmet Fox, wrote, 'It is the Law that any difficulties that can come to you at any time, no matter what they are, must be exactly what you need most at the moment, to enable you to take the next step forward by overcoming them. The only real misfortune, the only real tragedy, comes when we suffer without learning the lesson.' "

....So, based on what Vic Johnson wrote above, this is not something I can't overcome, and this is something placed in my life to help me learn a particular lesson to move me on to the next step in my life. Great, a lesson. My mom used to tell me that you will keep getting the same situation over and over until you learn the lesson. I'd rather just go ahead and learn this lesson, whatever it may be, than to continue to go through this.