TUESDAY May 9th
Romans 8:28
‘And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.’
Sometimes we find ourselves in circumstances or situations that we struggle to understand. A couple of weeks ago Elaine and I were having a conversation with someone and sort of questioning or trying to fathom out why certain things happen. We were thinking in particular of those we have known who have served God, sometimes with great sacrifice and yet when it came to their latter years they have suffered in some way that humanly speaking would seem to be cruel or unfair, and it is not only those like we were thinking about who have faithfully served God, it happens all around us, with believers and unbelievers alike.
It was the following day after the conversation I have mentioned that I went on to YouTube because I wanted to listen to or watch the funeral service of a man who had served God in the USA. During the service a man who I had watched many times leading worship in what was called ‘hymn sings’ shared some memories, and exactly what we had been discussing was his experience, he had loved to sing the gospel, but an illness had caught up with him and he could no longer do what he wanted to do! Again I thought about what seemed to be the cruelty or unfairness of the circumstances he found himself in. But this is what he said, when he had been asked about his infliction, ‘We don’t always get to choose our circumstances in life but we do get to choose how we respond.
We can be bitter, angry, blame somebody else, or we can choose to have joy that is available through the Lord now’.
I don’t know if this will help anyone today, but it spoke to me and I felt I had to include it in a devotion and the verse that I have attached to it from Romans 8:28 should always be a constant reminder that when we do not know or understand, God knows. He has every single day of our lives already written out for us as we read in Psalm 139:16 ‘Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.’