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No one is in your life by accident. That’s hard to swallow when someone difficult is in your life, isn’t it?
I well remember when I had a very difficult boss in my life and all I could think about was how quickly could I find another job and get out of there. For one year I tried my best to “fly away and be at rest,” as the Psalmist puts it, but nothing was working. Finally, that inner voice of God’s Spirit clearly said to me, “You’re here for a purpose.”
I thought, “What purpose could be served by working for this very difficult, humiliating, intimidating man?” But I began to pray differently: “Lord, I believe that no one is in my life by accident, so I accept this difficult boss. Please help me to see him through your eyes.”
Gradually I began to re-frame this person—put him in a different frame. Instead of seeing him as difficult and humiliating, I chose to put him in a “smart” frame, because he was indeed smart. I decided to learn as much as I could from him and to pray for good things to happen to him.
What a difference it made when I finally stopped rebelling against him being in my life and truly accepted it for some good, which I could neither see nor understand at the time. But now I can tell you that the next two years I worked for him prepared me to be self-employed, which enabled me to start and run this ministry. Over the past thirty-seven years God has chosen to grow this ministry from one station to over 400, and I could have never done that without the freedom of being self-employed. God was using this difficult man to prepare me for his work, though it is only in retrospect that I could see that.
Who is that difficult person in your life? Can you trust God that he has that person there for some good reason? Can you put that person in a different frame—a positive frame—and start praying for that person? When you do, God is then able to work miracles and turn that pain into gain for you.
I hope you’ll remember the phrase—no one is in your life by accident. When you start to believe that, God is going to show you marvelous reasons that he has put people into your life, you’re going to be able to accept the difficult relationships much better, and you’ll appreciate the good ones so much more