To build our character our heavenly Father allows hardship. We learn the most from hard knocks that  chisel away any weakness while the disappointment builds perseverance, strength, faith, and the purpose that comes from serving God and others.

Genuine blessings and true greatness are forged through personal effort, struggle, and selfless service. The truth is that the best things in life are not free of toil or hardship. People must dig the gold of life out of the rocks with their own hands to make it truly valuable. The greater blessing is not found in the possessing of a thing, but in the work required to own it. The mystery at the heart of our Lord’s beatitude is that it is more blessed to give than to receive. An ancient Bible record relates that the people of Joseph once came to Joshua with a complaint about their allotment in the promised land.  “Why have you given me a lesser portion?” Joshua replied, as you are a great people, go work to clear land, and  drive out the enemy and take possession.”  Our  greatness in God is our reason for us to work out our salvation to win the crown, a larger portion. In scripture we learn God’s heart in small and great matters. These people eagerly sought more favor and wished to be recognised as a superior tribe.  They wanted prominence and wealth without any effort of their own.  They felt that they deserved more favor  by an inherent position.  They expected a given wealth in order to pay someone else to clear the land and cultivate the soil instead of doing it themselves. Believers today also pray for more, but do not study God’s Word to inherit wisdom. Those unwilling to do the hard work, or fight spiritual battles, or make sacrifices will miss the blessings God intended.  We cannot substitute prayer for effort. We must humble ourselves in order to claim our spiritual rewards. God will give us our inheritance just as He gave Joseph’s portion to him. Our promised land must be won, every inch of it. Each person must win their own personal share. We must conquer our own temptations. We must train and discipline our own faith, and learn patience, gentleness, and all the lessons God’s plan for ourselves. No person can give us a larger portion of God’s favor. This deep truth is found in the parable of the wise virgins who refused to give their oil to those whose lamps were lacking.

“Go sell and buy oil for yourselves. We have not enough for us and you.” The teaching is that grace is not transferable. It cannot be passed from heart to heart. The wise could not give of their oil to the foolish.  Even God cannot give us holiness, peace, and the rich results of victorious living without our own struggle, battle, or self-denial.  “God works in us both to will and to do.” The parable tells us this up front:  “Work out your own salvation.” God works in us only when we begin to work at His bidding. The truest friendship must refuse to do for others what they can do for themselves. Joshua may have seemed a little unkind to his own tribe, but in reality he was not. The best kindness he showed them was to send them out to do the things they could do. It was far better to command them to go into the forest, cut down timber, and clear the land themselves, than to give them a large, cleared, and cultivated area of new land. It was far better to send them to drive out enemies with iron chariots and conquer the valley for themselves, than to send an army to make the conquest for them. Our best friends are not those who make life easy for us. Our best friends are those who instill courage, energy and resolution into our hearts.

Thousands of lives are stunted and irreparably harmed by pampering. Parents often, in their warm and eager love, cause harm in their children’s lives.

This happens when they overhelp them. They do things for their children that it would be better to teach them to do themselves. They also spare their children’s struggles, self-denials and hardships that it would be better for them to meet. Friendship is in constant danger of over-helping in this way.

When someone we love comes to us with a problem, love’s first impulse is to solve it for them.

However, it would be a thousand times kinder if we helped them find a way to solve it for themselves. If you can awaken a young man’s sleeping or undiscovered powers, so that he wins a fortune or performs a brave deed with his own hands and mind, that is an infinitely better thing to do for him than if you were to give him a fortune as a present.

In the first case, by earning his fortune, he also gains trained abilities, energy, strength, self-reliance, disciplined character, and all the qualities that belong to strong manhood. In the other case, he receives nothing but the money. He misses all the lessons he would have learned and all the personal growth and enrichment he would have gained through the struggle and the conquest These are the true gains in life Things are not possessions Money real estate stocks and bonds are not true possessions for a man with a soul They are entirely external to the man himself They do not make a man greater or more of a man if they are merely placed in his hands. When a man earns a fortune, he will grow.

Work itself is always a greater blessing than the result one works to achieve. Therefore it is a greater kindness to encourage someone to break open hard rocks and find water for themselves than to bring them water that another person has led down from the mountains. This is how Joshua showed his friendship to the children of Joseph. He would not do them the disservice of freeing them from the effort of conquest and taking control.

He set them to win the land for themselves, because the blessing was found as much in the winning as in the possessing. This is also God’s way with us. He does not make life easy for us. He does not promise to lift the burden from our shoulders, even when we cast it upon him. This burden of ours is God’s gift to us, and to lay it down would be to lay down a blessing. It is something our life needs, and it would be unkind to take it away.

Surely a wiser love puts new strength into your heart and arm so that you can continue with your hard duty, your heavy responsibility, and your weight of care without growing weary.

This is better than a love that would simply take the load away and leave you free from any burden. You may think you would prefer the latter way, that it would be easier, but you would miss the blessing and your life would be weaker and poorer in the end. God’s purpose is always to make something of us, to bring out the best that is in us.

Therefore, he does not clear the forest for us, but puts the axe into our hands and tells us to cut it down ourselves.

And while we prepare the ground for cultivation, we grow healthy and strong through the effort. He does not drive out our enemies for us.

He puts the sword into our hands and sends us to drive them out. The struggle does us good The wrestling makes us strong Another lesson from this incident Is that true greatness should show itself Not in demanding favors or privileges But in achieving great things The people of Joseph thought their prominence Meant they deserved a bigger share than others No, said Joshua Your prominence only entitles you to the privilege Of the greatest heroism and the hardest work So he gave them the hardest task A commander honors the best regiment on the field Not by assigning it an easy post Or a duty away from danger He honors it by giving it the most dangerous post The duty requiring the most splendid courage So it is in all life The place of honor is always the hardest place Where the most sensitive and challenging duty must be done where the heaviest burden of responsibility must be carried.

It is never a real honor to be given an easy place. Instead of demanding a place of honor as a favor of friendship, which doesn mark us as truly great we should earn our place of honor through worthy deeds and service Our Lord taught this lesson when the disciples competed for the highest positions They wished he would simply appoint them to sit at his right and left hand

His answer is very important. Men are not appointed to high positions in spiritual life, he said. It is not mine to give. Even Christ cannot give any disciple rank or position in his kingdom. It must be earned by the disciple himself. In human governments, rulers may put their favorites in places of honor merely to show them regard.

Appointments are often arbitrary in such cases, and unworthy men are placed in high positions.

But positions are never given to people in Christ’s kingdom. They must be won. Then our Lord went further and explained the principle on which places are assigned to his disciples. Whoever would become great among you shall be your minister, and whoever would be first among you shall be your servant.

That is, rank in Christ’s kingdom depends on service. The one who serves others most completely, in Christ’s name, is the highest among people. To put it in another way, instead of claiming rank through appointment or favor, you must earn it by serving your fellow human beings. You must use your strength, your abilities, and your greatness to do good for others.

The only privilege your superiority over others gives you is the privilege of doing good in superior ways. This truth has wide-reaching applications. It should permanently remove from our thinking any feeling that others owe us favors, as well as any self-seeking spirit or claims for status or priority over others. It should also make us despise all the miserable outward show of claimed rank, aristocracy or lineage Which so many people use for empty display When we measure true rank, the only question asked is What are you doing with your life?

The law of love means we must use whatever we have to serve our fellow human beings Selfishness robs a life of its true worth Even the least talented person who uses their small abilities to serve and help others is higher in God’s sight than the most highly talented person who uses great power only for personal gain. The most highly gifted life this world ever saw was that of Jesus Christ.

Yet he demanded no recognition from people, nor did he claim any rank. He never said his humble position was too small or too narrow for his great abilities. Instead, he used his greatness to do good and to bless the world. He washed people’s feet with hands that angels would have kissed. He was the greatest among human beings, and he was the servant of all. That is the true purpose of greatness, to serve. There is no other worthy way to use whatever gifts God has given us. Instead of claiming status, distinction, rank, position or attention because of our gifts, abilities, wisdom or name We must use all we have to bless the world and honour God