DEALING WITH LIFE'S STRUggLES-1972

Graduation loomed ahead with promises of change.  March brought new energies.
I began "Spring Cleaning" and packing meager belongings accumulated from the various living arrangements in anticipation of big changes.

Entry from March 15, 1972
Comments about PRAYER & PRAISE day: 
During the opening hour Professor David Needham gave a wonderful message
 on "WHY IT IS HARD TO PRAY?". 
( Professor Needham was one of my favorite professors.  He always spoke with such directness, preciseness, and understandable lectures.  They always led us into the presence of God. I learned many truths under his teaching.  His office door was always open and we were always invited to drop in if we had anything to talk about.~my sixty six-yr.-old-self)

 WHY IS IT SO HARD TO PRAY?
 Luke 18:1, We don't see answers right away.
Rom 4:20 , Eph.6:18 The size of the promise of God could be another reason it is so difficult. 
 We don't know how to put it into words.
We may be too tired or too sleepy.
There is a common principle between these verses:  Prayer is a vivid exercise of faith in coming to grips with God.  (It forces us to be honest.)
What can we do to alleviate the difficulty in our own prayer life? 
1.  CULTIVATE appreciation of who we are      and establish a relationship with Him.    John.15:15,16 

¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.

2.  CULTIVATE a sense of contentment with God.  Are we disappointed in God and the circumstances he has put us in?
3.  CULTIVATE a concept of the bigness of God.  (wisdom, power and purpose of God.)


 Specific books I had been reading that year were of tremendous comfort and strength to me.

Here are reviews from outside sources:

"Sometimes it just feels like life is beating us up. We worry about our family, our health, our money, our time, and in the process we run ourselves ragged. These stressors are not a recent phenomenon, but have been with humanity since the fall. Even though The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life is over 130 years old, author Hannah Whitall Smith was aware of the age-old problems that plague humanity.

In her studies, she discovered that there is a way to handle the stressors in our life in a healthy way that builds us up instead of tearing us down. That way of dealing with life's trials is through living faithfully in the rest and comfort that Jesus offers us. True happiness does not come from an absence of difficulty, but through the loving embrace of our Savior. "

My 1956 Edition Given to me by the men's dorm mother in 1972

Andrew Hanson From the Christian Classics Library

Another Christian classic:

"Comfort is a word seldom associated with religious faith by those who are not Christians. Doesn’t religion make people uncomfortable with its demands? Isn’t life more comfortable when we just live the way we want? Who needs to worry about a judgmental God watching our every move? Even the word Jesus is enough to cause people to squirm in their seats. However, for many Christians the words Jesus and comfort are inextricably linked. In her classic work, God of All Comfort, Hannah Whitall Smith describes why faith in the Christian God leads to a comfort and joy that cannot be found elsewhere. Without Christ, life is little more than living through doubt, fear, and anxiety. In her inspirational work, Smith reminds the reader of the reality of God’s promises to his people. With Christ, doubt, fear, and anxiety are obsolete feelings. " Andrew Hanson CCEL Intern It was in March that I was first introduced to the writings of the Puritans. I had just finished reading the book by Jeremiah Burroughs, THE RARE JEWEL OF CONTENTMENT   A book that was written in 1648 by a Puritan author. " Burroughs does a wonderful job of reminding the reader that we are merely pilgrims passing through this world. That it is natural not to be comfortable here, because it is not our home. For example, he comments, “I am a traveler and I must not be finding fault; I am in another man’s house…”  He reminded me that my contentment and peace should derive from God alone, and from no earthly person or thing. Right at the start of the book, Burroughs offers this definition of contentment: “Christian Contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which FREELY submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.”

It was that last quote that had an obvious lasting impression on me as I noted it March 24,1972 and am now reading quotes from my twenty-two-year-old-self to my sixty-six-year-old-self.