No one that I know likes frustration. Most people hate it and try their best to avoid it!  It does not matter how hard you try.  Live life long enough and you will discover rather quickly that you cannot live life without frustration – it just seems to find a way to creep back into your life again and again.  Since there is no getting away from frustration, then the next best thing is to learn from it.  Here are a few things that I have learned about learning from frustration.

Figure Out The Source! Is it internal or external?  Is the frustration coming from you or is it coming from others?  Is it something that you have done or failed to do?  Is it something that someone else has done or failed to do?  Once you figure this out, then you can begin to think about what your next steps will be.

When You Are The Source! If you are the source, then you will need to do some self inspection and figure out what is going on in you that would cause you to do or not do the things that impact you in a negative and frustrating way.  You need to figure out the “CAUSE”!  What is it that is causing you to do or not do whatever it is that is leading to the frustration?  Deal with the cause and you can change the outcome!  This is really not all that difficult.  Most of us or just lazy or unwilling to take the time or practice the discipline of actually “thinking through!”  Thinking through will help you to allow God to take your life to a whole new level.  Here is the question that you need to ask yourself and answer very honestly:  “Is there anything that I can or could have done differently?  If so, what?  And what are you going to do about it?

When Someone Else Is The Source! When someone else is the source, things get a little more difficult.  When you are the source – all you have to do is work on yourself.  When someone else is the source, you have to take the time to figure out why they are causing you frustration.  Most people that frustrate you – probably do not have any idea that they are doing it.  Most people do not get up in the morning thinking:  “I wonder who I can frustrate today?”  Most people that cause other people to be frustrated are usually frustrated themselves and they do not have any idea what to do about their own frustration.  Now here is the important question:  What can I do about it?  Is there anything that you can do or say that you have not done or said that will help the other person?  If so, then what are you waiting on?  If there is nothing else, then it is time to turn it over!  Tomorrow we will talk about how to turn it over and move on!

Do you ever get frustrated? I get frustrated when things or people do not work the way that I think that they should.  I tend to be a person that takes on life by praying, seeking God and then moving forward according to what I believe is His leading.  Moving forward in that way causes me to have a certain expectation about how things should turn out.  When things fail to turn out as I think they should – it is very frustrating!

I will sometimes get stuck in my frustration for a short period of time. I don’t like getting stuck in frustration and so I usually at some point will start to “process” what do I need to do to make things work the way I think they should?  This usually will help reveal to me:  Is the issue me, someone else or something else?  Sometimes when I think it is others and begin to process, I discover that it is me.  Sometimes when I think it is me and begin the process, I discover that it is others. This is the first step in determining where we need to go next to move out of our frustration and into right direction.

Frustration does not have to be a bad thing. Frustration is a reality in life.  Live long enough, really care and you will experience frustration.  You get to make the choice about what you will do with frustration and what you will allow frustration to do with you.  We can grow from it or die a slow death from it!  I hope to talk a little more about this tomorrow and help us to make the choice to grow from it!

This post is based on the introduction of my message last night at FOCUS!

Power is attractive and alluring! Most of us believe in God and we believe that He is powerful and so we are attracted to Him.  We think that if we can in some way figure out how to make His power work on our behalf, then we will have it made.

When you stop and think about it for just a minute – it is really amazing to think about the things that will motivate a person to pray. When a woman learns that her husband is interested in another woman – she will pray.  When a man learns that he is about to lose his job – he will pray.  When a student is about to take a test – they will pray.  When a child wants something that they cannot have – they pray!  When we get to the place where we have exhausted our resources, then we will make and take the time talk with God in the hope that we might manipulate Him to do what we cannot.

These acts of manipulation can best be viewed as religion. And it is sad but true that most of the people in our world today have religion, but not relationship. Religion is the human attempt to harness or manipulate the power of God!  Our lives are always under a constant threat and we want power to be able to stand up to and against those threats.  We know that even when life is good, it is never completely safe and so we try to utilize the one power source that we know of – GOD!

The thing that we need to understand is that God cannot be and is not going to be manipulated. But we don’t need to manipulate God, because God already has our best interest at heart.  God loves you and has a plan for your life! That is more than just a catchy little phrase.  It is truth – God’s truth that flows out of His mouth, through His Word and into and through our lives!

Lay your religion down and stop trying to manipulate God! Pick up a real and meaningful relationship and trust God to work as He sees fit on your behalf.  Follow Him and be obedient to what He teaches in His Word and He will use even the bad for good in your life as you love Him!