Tough circumstances of life always change our minds about God.
They either tempt us to doubt what He’s promised, or they draw us closer to Him in faith. But we never stay the same.
(Photo by Photodune)
God’s plan for your life is revealed and tested in times of struggle.
If you’re struggling today, don’t miss the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of God’s plan for you.
Joseph shows you how.
Most people live for dreams. It’s a quest, really.
Clinging to ideals of how life could and “should” be, they chase those dreams like a carrot on a stick. Always within reach, but never gotten.
(Photo by Photodune)
I guess we’re all wired to pursue the ideal. The world calls it following “your heart,” and we Christians refer to it as “the will of God.”
But in truth, we generally settle for nothing less than our version of how life ought to be.
Any search for the ideal needs only to look at the Garden of Eden to see the futility of that pursuit.
God points us a different direction.
God will lead you places you would never choose. Unwanted places.
Because the Lord is much greater than you and I can imagine, it makes sense that He wants for us more than we ever dreamed.
(Photo by Photodune)
God wants you to trust Him, and you’d like to do so. He wants you to glorify Him, to know Him, and so do you. But really, you often want to trust God only when you understand Him.
Too often, that desire to know the Lord slices His list of attributes in half.
When you and I settle for anything less than all of God, we also settle for less than all we can become.
My dad used to have an old pickup truck I would borrow for odd jobs.
It wasn’t a good-looking truck, but it was faithful. The only glitch in the deal was the gas gauge. It read “almost empty” no matter how much gas you had.
(Photo by Rick Harris from Whiby, Ontario, Canada. Uploaded by PDTillman. CC-BY-SA-2.0)
If you had just filled up, it read “almost empty.” If you had half a tank, it read “almost empty.” The gauge only worked when you were out of gas! It would immediately move from “almost empty” to “empty.” I remember once I coasted into a gas station on fumes and a prayer.
I have found one thing in life that cuts the cable from the gas tank to the gas gauge quicker than anything else.
I’m talking about the pervasive and infectious attitude of bitterness.
You can be riding along with a full tank, but bitterness will show you a gauge “almost empty.”
It’s always great when God replaces something painful with something wonderful.
Or when He provides for a need in a context of desperation.
But what about when God takes away something we enjoy—or even something we need? Or when He allows something bad to invade something good?
(Photo: by Hariadhi. Own work, GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons)
Can we then say what Job said?
Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised. —Job 1:21
During the times when God takes something away from you, it’s easy to feel duped, as if God was some kind of pusher, giving free samples and then removing them after the cravings have their hooks in your heart.
The Lord’s generosity can be misunderstood as cruelty.
Rather than praise God for the time we enjoyed His blessings—we tend to resent His sovereign prerogative to confiscate them.
Here’s some perspective that can help when God takes something away from you that was a blessing.
Growing up, I often felt ripped-off at Christmas.
Because my birthday is December 15, I often heard: “Wayne, this is your birthday-Christmas gift.”
I thought, Hey, gee, thanks.
(Photo by Patrick-br CC-BY-SA-3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
I wanted to tell the person whose birthday was in August, “Yeah, and here’s your birthday-Christmas gift too.” (Those of you with December birthdays understand.)
As a kid, I also hated getting clothes for Christmas (particularly underwear). Some people just don’t know how to give age-appropriate gifts to kids.
When I read the Christmas story, it seems the three Wise Men didn’t have much experience shopping for children either.
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Herod the Great is often remembered for the story that never appears on Christmas cards.
Hearing from the Magi that the “king of the Jews” was born in Bethlehem, the paranoid Herod sent and slew all the male boys under two years old in the town—a cryptic fulfillment of Jeremiah 31:15.
(Photo: The Herodium, courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
Of course, Jesus’ family got word of the impending threat and escaped by night to sojourn in Egypt until Herod’s death (Matthew 2:13-18).
Whenever I visit the area of the Herodium, I can’t help but think of the historical irony that Herod tried to kill Jesus—but failed. Instead, Herod himself died and was buried in the Herodium overlooking the very city the Messiah was born (Micah 5:2).
This offers a lesson of great encouragement in God’s sovereignty.
The first Christmas looked like a coincidence.
From a human perspective, politics set the agenda: Caesar took a census.
Period. End of story.
(Photo: Bethlehem, courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
But from the divine viewpoint? God orchestrated ordinary events for extraordinary purposes.
The same is true today. He uses the power of coincidence in your life as well.
At Tel Arad, the whole land of Canaan lay before the Hebrews.
They had waited and wandered forty years in the wilderness. The Promised Land was theirs for the taking. Right there before them!
(Photo: Arad Israelite fort, courtesy of Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
Instead, God led the Hebrews on a major detour.
Tel Arad in Israel’s Negev offers many benefits to its visitors. It’s an oasis of ancient archaeology. It gives a rare glimpse of Judah’s idolatry.
And it speaks to us today of the need to tap the brakes on our impatience with God’s leading.
Because God can stop our pain, we think He should.
So we pray. And pray. But nothing happens.
(Photo by Jiri Hodan. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
That’s what occurred with Mary and Martha. They sent a message to Jesus that their brother Lazarus lay sick. But instead of immediately traveling to Bethany, Jesus stayed right where He was beyond the Jordan River. When He finally did arrive, Lazarus had been dead four days.
In other words, Jesus had taken His sweet time showing up.
From what happened next, I see several lessons to help us reconcile pain and prayer with God’s love.
I love connecting the Bible and its lands to life. This is my personal blog where that happens. Here's some more about me . . .
WAYNE STILES
Hi, my name is Wayne Stiles, and I love connecting the Bible and its lands to life. This is my personal blog where that happens. My goal is to deliver practical content to encourage you in your relationship with God. I believe that a life lived well needs a growing and intentional connection with God through Jesus Christ. I write on the devotional life, Bible lands, understanding the Bible, and resources I have found helpful on these topics.
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