Jeremiah 23:1-8
Psalm 107
Romans 8:28-39
John 6:52-59
“And we know that in all
things God works for the good of those who love Him, who’ve been called
according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28
Why
does it often seem that life can be so hard?
I ask this question because I often become frustrated when the course of
my daily life doesn't always go smoothly or in the manner that I had
envisioned. Frustration is the one of
the results of living in a world that is saddled with sin. I have to remind myself that setbacks are a
part of life. There will always be some
degree of disappointment, and if you aren’t careful, that disappointment can
lead to pain and resentment. When we
become resentful towards someone or a group, we don’t hurt those people; we
only hurt ourselves. Are we going to
allow setbacks to make us a better person or a bitter person?
It
is easy to become envious of others when life doesn’t go the way we want it
to. We begin to think, “It’s not fair.
We've worked long and hard and things aren't going according to our plan?” The question then is, just exactly whose plan
are we trying to execute? Our plan or
God's Plan? Our plan is just as flawed
as the world we live in. When we think
we are taking control of a situation, we often find that control is merely
temporary, if it ever existed at all. A
great example of this is the journey that the Rector Search Committee is
currently taking. We have found
ourselves sometimes focused so hard on the "search" part of the job,
that we sometimes miss out on the far more important "listen" part of
the job. By that I don't mean failing to
listen to our candidates, but rather struggling to hear and comprehend what God
is trying to tell us. When we put
everything in the context of focusing on God's Will and asking Him to give us
wise and discerning hearts and minds, all our needs will be met and the answers
start becoming much clearer.
We
can persevere in a imperfect world by remembering a few things:
1. God uses everything for our
good. God is bigger than our enemies and
certainly bigger than our problems.
2. God wants us to succeed in
all those areas where we may be coming up short.
3. God solved our biggest
problem when he paid for all our sins, including the ones we haven’t committed
yet. If God cared enough to save us and
give us the gift of eternal life, it goes without saying that he certainly cares
about the problems in our daily lives.
4. If it’s big enough to worry
about, it’s big enough to pray about.
And if we pray about it, we won’t have to worry about it.
All
of these things should remind and comfort us that God is good and has a firm
control of our lives.
Doug Hart