{"id":89106,"date":"2025-08-05T13:12:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T18:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=89106"},"modified":"2025-08-05T13:12:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T18:12:06","slug":"lifes-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/lifes-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"Life&#8217;s Challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by Zeke Flores<\/p>\n<p>Paul&#8217;s honesty in his telling of the &#8220;thorn in the flesh&#8221; that caused him such distress is relatable (II Corinthians 12:7-10). Whatever it was that caused Paul such pain, we&#8217;ve all been there. After all, who hasn&#8217;t struggled with some circumstance, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual, that hasn&#8217;t driven us to our knees in a plea to God, &#8220;Please take this out of my life!&#8221;?<\/p>\n<p>Paul&#8217;s answer from the Lord was not an eradication of the pain, but a better way to cope with it. The Lord&#8217;s promise of sufficient grace is just what Paul needed. It&#8217;s what we need to.<\/p>\n<p>This short episode offers many lessons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We&#8217;re inadequate on our own to face life&#8217;s difficulties. Therefore, we need God&#8217;s help. And, coming to our aid, He offers all the resources we need to not only endure, but to triumph.<\/li>\n<li>The limitations and weaknesses of our frail humanity provide opportunities to experience the help God offers. Knowing that He not only <b>can <\/b>help, but that He <b>wants <\/b>to help should cause us to call on Him in our time of need.<\/li>\n<li>God&#8217;s grace is sufficient to meet every challenge we face. Often, God&#8217;s resources are not what we&#8217;d expect, and His answers to prayer are hardly ever what we envision. Yet, trusting His way is best, His grace -all the resources He makes available for man&#8217;s forgiveness, sustained mutual fellowship, and confidence to carry on- is limitless.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Too often, when faced with adversity, we respond with anger, fear, or despair. But Paul&#8217;s situation reminds us that God is an endless source of strength, confidence, help, and love. When we&#8217;re overwhelmed by our problems and our own inability to respond to them properly, we&#8217;re in a perfect position to do it God&#8217;s way and, in the end, see that His way is always best.<\/p>\n<p>Paul, trusting in the Lord, had the right perspective. Ultimately, his unfavorable situation was transformed into an opportunity for praise. It can for us, too.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<em>Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ&#8217;s sake; for wehn I am weak, then I am strong<\/em>&#8221; (II Corinthians 12:10).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Zeke Flores Paul&#8217;s honesty in his telling of the &#8220;thorn in the flesh&#8221; that caused him such distress is relatable (II Corinthians 12:7-10). Whatever it was that caused Paul such pain, we&#8217;ve all been there. After all, who hasn&#8217;t struggled with some circumstance, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual, that hasn&#8217;t driven us to our&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[182,188],"class_list":["post-89106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-suffering","tag-trials"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24421,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-was-pauls-thorn-in-the-flesh\/","url_meta":{"origin":89106,"position":0},"title":"What was Paul&#8217;s thorn in the flesh?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How are you? Can you help answer this question and elaborate on it? What was Paul's thorn in the flesh, when Paul says he prayed three times that it may be removed? Answer: \"And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17550,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/from-bad-to-good\/","url_meta":{"origin":89106,"position":1},"title":"From Bad to Good","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 1, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mike Johnson Text: Philippians 1:12-14 Paul wrote the book of Philippians while in prison. His trial had probably already taken place, and he seemed to be waiting for the verdict. It appears he expected to be released but was uncertain about it. Paul, no doubt, did not enjoy being\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/scan0018-12-300x288.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3136,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-we-say-for-sure-that-onesimus-stole-from-his-master\/","url_meta":{"origin":89106,"position":2},"title":"Can we say for sure that Onesimus stole from his master?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 24, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In regards to Philemon 18, can we say for sure that Onesimus stole from his master? Answer: Paul tells us in the book of Philemon that Onesimus was a slave (Philemon 16) who became a Christian after meeting Paul while Paul was in prison in Rome (Philemon 10). Paul\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":95634,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-paul-offer-forgiveness-before-or-after-the-corinthians\/","url_meta":{"origin":89106,"position":3},"title":"Did Paul offer forgiveness before or after the Corinthians?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 14, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, If Matthew 16:19; 18:18; and John 20:23 are future perfect participles, would the same logic not apply in II Corinthians 2:10? That is, does Paul offer his forgiveness before or after the Corinthians? What did Paul mean by \"in the presence of Christ\"? Does it mean that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":95302,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/prayers-and-thoughts\/","url_meta":{"origin":89106,"position":4},"title":"Prayers and Thoughts","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Edwin Crozier As Paul continued to instruct the Philippians in the wake of calling out Euodia and Syntyche, he addressed two important aspects of maintaining harmony. First, recognize that a great deal of disharmony comes from anxiety. Let's face it. Viewing others as more significant and prioritizing their interests\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37210,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-change-your-mind\/","url_meta":{"origin":89106,"position":5},"title":"Is it wrong to change your mind?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, If someone stated they were never going to do something that wasn't wrong can they change their mind and not be in sin? For example, if I said I was never going to get married and then change my mind and get married is that a sin? I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}