The answer to your problem

 BY Argie Simonis

As we get closer and closer to the week of the Passion, the crucifixion and the Resurrection of our Lord, the Word of God reminds us:

"Looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:2

Just as an athlete has a goal or a prize to which he is committed and strives to achieve it, so we are called to have our Jesus as our main concern. He is the author and finisher of our faith and if we are not committed to Him, our faith will never be complete.

So how did the Lord run His own race? We know that he won and the above verse reveals to us how he achieved this. He was focusing on the "joy that was before Him."

Jesus suffered more than any other human being on earth. He took upon Himself the disease and curse of the whole world, and became literally a sin for our sake:

"For he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." 2Cor. 5:21

"As many were astonished at you; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:" Isaiah 52:14

The Lord did not look at the torment He would endure, but at the spoils of His victory, and this is the example we must imitate. In order to be able to face the difficulties in our life we ​​must focus on the good and not the bad. Jesus knew very well what was coming before Him. We see Him in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His crucifixion praying to the Father and asking him if it is possible to fulfill His will in another way:

"Saying, Father, if you be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but yours, be done." Luke 22:42

 But as soon as he realized that this was the only way, he put aside the agony of His sufferings and focused on the joy of His victory. He saw you and me as the fruit of His sacrifice and He rejoiced!

Just like the Lord, we have the power to value or devalue everything that happens to us. Some say that we are just products of our environment and that we can not control the way we react. In the verse we read here, however, Jesus teaches us the exact opposite.

Our mind is like a magnifying glass. The more we focus our attention somewhere it gets bigger and from where we move our thinking away, it gets smaller and with less influence on us. We are solely responsible for the value we place on everything that happens around us and that is why many people, while going through the same situations, react differently. Some become psychotic with their problems while others may put aside what happened and move on with their lives.

We live in wicked times and with all that is happening around us it is very easy to fall into traps and become disoriented. What kind of person do you want to be? Do you want to be with those who are carried away by every wind that blows, or by those who follow the example of the apostle Paul:

"Brothers, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before,

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Phil. 3:13-14