Having spoken to various good friends over various things the last few days the following thing has occured to me:-
Our best laid plans are often different to God's.
I think we all have an idea in our head of how we would like things to go. I often mistakenly take the idea in my head as perfection and what perfection would look like.
I suppose it is arrogance to assume that we know best and I'm guilty as charged.
I was thinking of what Joseph said to his brothers when God's Plan for Him came to fruition. Joseph had many hard times and confusing situations despite doing very little wrong.
Genesis 50:20
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
This world is a place full of evil, hate and selfishness. If you disagree with me just watch the News. Things will not always go as we have planned but God never loses control. As my pastor likes to say, 'The Trinity don't do emergency meetings'.
I truly believe in happy endings. It's only because I believe in a God who loves us and works the best for us in every situation, no matter how gloomy it looks. I believe in looking back at hard times smiling at how God helped us through it and worked in us through it. I believe living exciting, uncomfortable lives where our security is in God alone. I believe in Heaven and no matter how horrible life on earth is that we will have a perfect eternity with God if we trust in Jesus Christ.
Once my hope was in earthly things such as girls, football matches & money. The problem with those things are that girls can dump you, your football team can lose and money runs out.
My hope now is in the God who will never leave us (Hebrews 13:5), can never fail (1 Corinthians 13:8a, Romans 8:31), and whose love will never run out (Romans 8:38-39).
Praise the LORD!
That's really interesting what you say about the how we imagine things being the 'perfect' (or sometimes even the ONLY) way. I hadn't considered that before, not in those terms anyway.
ReplyDeleteI believe in happy endings too, I've had many of them though not always in the ways I would have chosen. God knows better!
xx
It is a really hard thing to get your head around, probably because we have another idea we think is better ;)
ReplyDeleteHe truly does :-)
I definitely believe life has a happy ending when you're a child of God...because He is the ending...the never-ending ending...and nothing could be happier than an eternal ending with Him :)
ReplyDeleteHi Mike!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy reading your blog. It's so encouraging to hear of others who engage with their beliefs and share them with others.
As the psalmist says, (of God), "Your ways are not our ways, neither are your thoughts, our thoughts..." God is too big for our understanding, but then, God is love and no one can ever understand love. We're fortunate because it's not an issue - all we have do is choose whether or not we want to receive and then pass on that love. Praise the Lord!
Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI love that verse, that is so true and fits in perfectly :-) Thanks for sharing it!
Amen :D