When my circumstances or people are working against me I have a tendency to resist them and seek ways to either change what is happening or remove myself, or the antagonists, from the situation. The Lord, however, is teaching me that my resistance is really my old nature’s way of trying to take control in order to escape the Cross. The most powerful thing I can do, in every challenging experience, is surrender myself to God and trust Him to guide me. My ego sees that as weakness or failure and does everything it can to motivate me to action, even if it means getting resentful, bitter or angry. I pray that the Lord will help me quickly realize, in those threatening conditions, that His strength is made perfect in my weaknesses.
"You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you."
Matthew 5:38-42
"Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
2 Corinthians 12:8-10