The more you focus on your difficulty,

your hardship, or even your pain when

you're suffering, the more you focus on it,
what happens,
the bigger it gets.
I've been going through this, and I've been
going through that, and if your friends
listen to you and say, oh, I'm so sorry. I
feel so sorry for you
the more pity they give
you, the bigger it gets
And the bigger it gets, the
more you doubt God.
And so the issue is
focus.
 And I think when I think of focus, I think of
many instances in the Bible, but one of the
primary ones is Daniel in the lions den. And
so the Bible says he slept with the lions all
night. If he'd have been focused on lions, he
would have been sleeping. He'd have been
over the corner somewhere all crouching
down, hoping that they wouldn't see him or
something. And it brings me back to one of
the illustrations of our brethren, when God
just did something for him in one of the most
difficult times of his life.
It probably was one of the up to the very
top. And this lady came to see him, and
she said, I want you to have lunch with
me, and then I want to take you to my
apartment and show you something.

And so they ate lunch, and he went to

see her.
 They walked in. She said, don't sit down. I want to
show you something. Walked over and showed him
this picture of Daniel in the lions den. And she said,
that, son, I want you to tell me what you see.
 So he said, well. I see this line
over here looking up and this one
looking down and see the bones.
So I thought of everything this
little lady could possibly have
thought about. And I said she
said, do you see anything else?
He said no.
 She said, if you'll notice, the picture had all
these lines, and Daniel had his hands behind
him. He's looking at this ray of light. She said,
What I want you to see is Daniel doesn't have
his eyes on the lions, but on God.
It was like God hugged him that day because
from that moment on, all of his fears
disappeared and all of his uncertainties and a
lot of other things probably disappeared
because she got his focus right.
Again, When you focus on the trouble and the
heartache and the burden and the pain, it gets
bigger.
And we feel less confident, less significant
and overwhelmed because remember this
daniel was looking at Omnipotence, who
created the lions. He could shut the lion's
mouth. He got to kill every one of them in a
second. He just let him hang around while
Daniel went to sleep that night. And before,
he probably went to sleep
And when he woke up, he went up and looked
up and just reminding of God that he was
where he was because he had obeyed God and
God delivered Him. God always operates on
the basis of principles, not on the basis of
feelings and how we feel. So on principles,
for example, the simplest one is we reap what
we sow more than we sow, later than we sow.
God always operates. He does never change
that.
 And so, for example, one of those principles
is obey God, leave all the consequences to
Him. That means I'm going to do what he
says, I'm going to let Him take care of the
consequences. God always acts. For example,
he says one of those principles is that God
acts in behalf of those who wait for Him. And
so if I'm going to act on the basis of principle,
then I know I'm going to be heading in the
right direction, doing the right thing.
 Because God operates on principles. And
that's the reason you and I can learn how to
relate to Him, because if I don't understand
his ways, then I'm going to say, god, what are
you up to? Well, he's just up to doing and
being who he says he is. And so you could
come up with almost any problem. And I
believe, give US a little time and WE could
come up with a principle to say, if you'll obey
this principle, watch what happens.
 Because God wants us to obey him. And
listen, leave the consequences to Him. Let me
ask you a question. Is there any consequence
of your obedience God can NOT handle?
none, right?
None. He can handle every one of them. Well,
if I obey Him and leave the consequences to
Him, here's what happens. I'm going to be
able to have peace and a sense of joy and
confidence and assurance. It doesn't make any
difference what's going on because he's in
control.
 And if I'm obeying Him, he's already taken
care of it. Listen, the only thing that can
happen in your life is what God allows. If
you're a child of God, what he allows, he
allows for a reason. I may not like it. And
there have been lots of times I've told Him I
didn't like it.
 And you know what he said? Nothing.
Nothing. He just let me hammer away with it
and deal with it until I finally said, God,
you're right, I don't like this. I know you're
right because that's what your word says.
 And even though I don't like it, I want you to
have your way no matter what. When you're
living with guilt in your life or you're living
with sin in your life, you're going to have a
very difficult time trusting God, because sin
short circuits the power of God in the person's
life.
CONCLUSION
• Think about this: When we face problems, we can
blame others or trust God to work everything out
for His purpose.
• Memorize this truth: "My brethren, count it all joy
when you fall into various trials, knowing that the
testing of your faith produces patience," (James
1:2-3).
• Ask this question: If God is living and we know Him,
shouldn't we follow Daniel's example by living
before Him with courage and confidence?