Last year when I read John Bevere’s The Bait of Satan, there was a segment that caught my attention. He was a youth pastor at the time and was counseling one of his kids. The kid wanted someone to tell him what he wanted to hear, but Bevere asked him this: You can have a youth pastor’s reward or you can have a buddy’s reward; which is it? The kid thought about it and realized what Bevere was asking. He said he wanted a youth pastor’s reward.
There is a reward for believing those whom God has put in authority in our lives. I am not talking about a blind, ignorant faith, but a trusting, loyal faith. The Bible speaks so much about listening to Godly counsel that entire libraries would not be able to contain the depths of it, let alone just this blog post.
Bevere got this message from Matthew 10:41: “He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.”
We live in perilous times where each man does not listen to God but each man is doing what is right in his own eyes. We also live in times where people want to hear something that pleases them and will heap up for themselves teachers who tell them what they want to hear. And who the people listen to will get the reward of such a person.
Jesus constantly reprimanded the Pharisees because one of their primary sins was doing their religious acts in public for the purpose of being seen. They wanted the praise of their sheep, and Jesus said that was all the reward they were going to get. That would be the only benefit they would get out of all their legalism, rules, regulations, and religious pretense: their own pats on the back. Paul used to be one of them and he was the most zealous of them all. He eventually saw the futility of it all and counted it all as loss compared to knowing Christ. The word “loss” here is more accurately translated as “dung” or bodily waste. He learned that to receive the praise of man was utterly worthless.
After Christ, Paul sought a different reward – an eternal reward. That is why he was able to endure such suffering and encouraged Timothy to do so as well. He completed the race that God had him run, and he received a reward that is beyond what any of us could imagine. Paul’s reward was after his death, yet the reward Christ is talking about is also for the here and now.
The young man Bevere counseled would have taken a very wrong direction if he had not listened. He would have sought his dream too early and been too immature to handle it even if he got it and would have lost it all in the end. You never want to jump the gun on God. Instead, he listened to wise counsel. While Bevere didn’t say what happened to the young man, any obedience he did would have benefited him in the long run.
I experienced such choices too. When in college, I was studying civil engineering and I got to a point where I didn’t like it anymore. I was just learning to write, and I considered changing to a creative writing major. But some advice I heard, even though it was not directly given to me for this situation, was this: when you do not know what to do, go back to the last thing you know for sure God told you to do and do it until it is finished. I did not have a new direction to go so I stuck with the program for another year. After that, I changed my major to computer science where I finished my degree.
I can now see the benefits of the patience and obedience. Had I just stayed with my degree plan, I would have graduated one or two years earlier during which I would not have gone to the 2009 Urbana Convention where God started the chain reaction of events that led me to my current career as a physics teacher. Because I was obedient to Godly advice, I received a “prophet’s reward.” I got to see God move and be positioned where God wanted to use me. He’s not done positioning me, but I can see God’s hand in directing me in every step I have taken. Of course, I was far from perfect in either obedience or learning what I needed to learn. Had I known what I know now, I’d have taken my college courses far differently than I did then. But God is faithful even when I am faithless. As long as I stay in my walk of obedience, I will reap a “prophet’s reward” not just here in this life, but in the life to follow.
Everything we do is not done in a vacuum. God is going to use it one way or another for His glory, but He’s also going give us what our deeds, actions, and faith deserve. If we choose to live in sin, actively living our own way and doing our own thing, we will get the reward for such actions and it will be death and decay. But if we choose to live by the wisdom God has given us, we will hear the greatest praise that can be given to us: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Who is your counselor? Whose reward are you seeking? A buddy? A mentor? A pastor? A man (or woman) of God? God Himself? It disturbs me how many people claim to be Christians and yet they are so concerned about others’ opinions about them. The fear of man is a powerful vice, and it has destroyed the faith of many. They wanted the reward of their peers and they got it. But it will cost them the true reward of heaven. And just as Achan received the “spoils” of war from Jericho, it lasted him only a few days, he never got to enjoy it, and it cost his life, his family’s lives, and the lives of 36 soldiers from Israel. Had he waited just a few more days, he’d have the rewards and the spoils from the rest of the cities along with his brethren.
Go after the prophet’s reward, even if the word of obedience requires you to do something foolish before others. God is a faithful rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, and He never gives out skimpy prizes. Obey and follow Christ and you’ll get the riches and the blessings that come with Him. Every person who has tasted that will never go back. That’s where I’m heading. The things of God and the person of God are the best things to pursue and to have it is better than the entire world’s praise and resources combined. Go after God.
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by Steve Risner
This week in my musings, I thought I'd share some thoughts concerning the trustworthiness of God. I've known far too many people who trusted God when it was easy—when everything went as they had planned. But when times were tough or a situation didn't work out the way they'd wanted it to go, all of sudden God didn't know what He was doing. He somehow had become untrustworthy and didn't deserve their time, love, devotion, or respect. I'm sure we've all seen it, or even some of us have experienced it, too. I would like to suggest to you that regardless of how things are going, no matter the circumstance or outcomes, God is worthy of our praise and of our trust. I base this statement on the Word of God. Let's take a look.
The book of Job, considered by most to be the first book of the Bible that was fully written and put together, has a huge amount of application and study. The gist of the story is this: Job was a righteous man. God was happy with him, so the devil asked to tempt Job into being angry with God. Satan believed Job only blessed God because God blessed him. God approved of Satan's plans to attack Job as long as he did nothing to Job physically. All at once, all of Job's possessions and his children were taken from him. But he never cursed God. He praised God anyway. So, Satan was granted permission to strike Job physically. As this happened, Job's wife said, “Are you still clinging to your integrity? Curse God and die.” Job's response was still to acknowledge that God is sovereign, and His ways are better. He says in Job 2:10, “Shall we accept only good from God and not trouble?” Keep in mind that after Job had lost all his worldly possessions (he was very rich), lost all of his children when a house collapsed on them, and he was very sick and suffering, he still chose to respect God and believe that God's ways were better—that He was high above all of us.
Think about that for a moment: Job suffered far more than just about any of us ever will and his question to his wife was, “Will we only accept good things from God and not bad things?” The deal is really found in Jeremiah 29:11. God says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Here is God Almighty, sovereign Lord of the universe, telling us He has plans for us—and they're awesome! But He says His plans include not harming us. What's the deal? Well, I do believe that sometimes things happen to us because of us—we earn something bad that's happened to us. Sometimes not. So how does that work?
I believe that it's true that bad things can happen to us that are part of God's plan for us. Again, sometimes not, but it's definitely possible. The big picture is what God has in mind for us—His plans include eternity and, often times, impacting others for their good. The bottom line with Job, I think, is that God knew that in the end, none of the stuff that happened to Job on this earth truly mattered. His eternal destination was the big deal.
Now, I'm not suggesting that nothing that happens here is important. What I am saying is that it can be easier to deal with earthly trials and tribulations if we understand that heaven is at stake. God's plans are taking everything into account. His plans for us include spending eternity with Him in His awesome glory. Job, in all his sufferings—losing literally what would be equivalent to millions of dollars and losing his children and living in agony for a very long time—never abandoned his Lord. He looked to God for answers and didn't understand what was going on, but he never questioned God's goodness or His integrity.
Sometimes God's plans for us means we'll be healed. Sometimes it means we won't. Sometimes it means we'll have way more than enough. Other times it means we're in need. Sometimes God's plans for us include joy and peace and being on top of the mountain. Other times it could mean we're struggling in the valley, fighting for every breath and living in turmoil or adversity with others. But God knows what's going on and He's got great things in store for us.
Solomon, called the wisest man to ever live, repeatedly stated in the book of Ecclesiastes that this life is meaningless. What he's saying is this earthly life and all it involves—work, happiness, sadness, sickness, and so on—doesn't mean anything in light of eternity. (Check out Katie Erickson’s current blog post series for more on that.) Would you throw away everlasting life in eternal peace and glory with Jesus because you failed to grasp the importance of eternity (and the gravity of the alternative) and turned your back on God because you decided He didn't get something right? I would hope not.
We join this idea with James as he says in James 4:14, “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” Our time on earth is so very short; what really counts is eternity. Let's keep it in perspective. If we live 100 years on this earth, that's nothing—it's not even a fraction of a drop in the bucket compared to eternity.
God's plans for us, if we are to believe Him, are awesome and for our benefit. We can choose to go along for the ride with Him, accepting that His plans are better than ours, or we can choose to reject Him and His plans and go it on our own. However, there are some things to consider if this is actually what we want to do.
1) We have to take responsibility for the outcomes. If we go it on our own, it's ours. When it crashes and burns (and it most likely will), we must own it. We also forfeit any reward we might have had from the Lord for sacrificing our will to His. In other words, if we choose to take responsibility for everything, we immediately give up any hopes of spending eternity in heaven with Christ because we can't possibly pay our way in. More on that in a moment.
2) God's plans for us are far better than our plans could ever be. He knows more, loves more, and is much wiser than we could ever hope. So in effect, we're sacrificing awesome plans for our selfish and often foolish plans. How does this make sense?
It's like this analogy: God is offering us a huge sum of money—say $1 billion. He's offering it to us if we want to take it. We just need to accept it. Or we can go it on our own—we can fight and scrape and sweat and bleed for whatever we can earn. The bad news is, at best, we can earn about $0.25. The ticket to ride to heaven for all eternity is $1 billion, so if we choose to go it ourselves, we lose and in a big way. If we accept the free gift of God and choose to trust Him with our future, we win and in so many ways. Most importantly, we win for all eternity.
God is worthy of our trust—our unconditional trust in His goodness, His love, and His wisdom. Keep in mind that trials, tribulations, sufferings, hurts, and loss are all part of living. We lose people we love. We can lose jobs or money. We can lose our health. But none of this is what we take with us to eternity. We take our soul to heaven and nothing else. This life is a vapor—it's like smoke that comes up from a flame. It's visible for a second and then disappears.
In the end, God restored everything Job had many times over. He blessed the man in this life for being faithful to Him when it was hard. That might happen for you and me as well, but it may not. God may allow us to walk through the fire so we are pure as the purest gold when we pass into eternity. Stay the course! God's plans for you are so much better than our plans for ourselves. He doesn't owe us a thing. He's already given us far more than we ever deserved. Trust Him!
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This year, Worldview Warriors has decided to try and start a scholarship fund for graduating high school seniors who aspire to attend a Christian college. We are still working out the details in order for people to apply for this scholarship, and we are looking forward to the day when we can give it out to a graduating high school senior.
To try and start this fund, we are making these new t-shirts available to the public.
All proceeds from these t-shirt sales will go into this college scholarship fund.
This week, we have a special pre-order offer. For every shirt that is ordered by this Saturday, February 29, you’ll receive a free copy of Katie Erickson’s new book by Worldview Warriors Publishing, Tough Questions: Biblical Answers to Life’s Challenges. We appreciate any support you can give us in this endeavor.
We are also pleased to remind you that our mission statement is: Equipping students to impact this generation for Jesus Christ. One way we have been able to already do that through these t-shirts is with the gifts and talents of high school student Israel Risner. We are so blessed that he is allowing us to use his design on these t-shirts in order to start this college scholarship fund.
You can order T-Shirts right now at this link. Remember all proceeds from these shirts will go into our new college scholarship fund, and if you order by Saturday, February 29th, you will receive a free copy of Katie Erickson’s book Tough Questions as well.
Thanks for all of your support!
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
Last week in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, we saw that God has a time for everything in our lives, and everything has its appropriate season. In this week’s passage of Ecclesiastes 3:9-15, the Teacher gives his perspective on this idea.
In verses 9-11, the Teacher is pondering the ultimate purpose of things. While we can understand that God has an ultimate plan, we as humans want to understand it! What is the point of everything? That’s the struggle the Teacher is having, and we have this same struggle today, too.
To try and discover that ultimate meaning, we see in these verses that we first need to take care of what we’re supposed to do each day. That is the “burden God has laid on the human race” (verse 10), and when we do what we’re supposed to do, then we see that everything works out beautifully.
The other interesting thing to point out here is in verse 11: “He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” People are the only part of God’s creation that even questions why we are here and that we must have been made for a purpose larger than just fulfilling the burdens of daily life. Animals don’t worry about that. Plants don’t think about such things. The sun and other heavenly bodies just do what they were meant to do. But we humans were created in God’s image, so we have that capability to think about larger issues, and to ponder how all of the little pieces of our lives fit into the Master’s plan for this world. We know that we have a greater purpose, even if we are unable to discern what that purpose is.
With all the pessimistic talk we’ve seen from the Teacher so far, it is good to see in verses 12-13 that he does have some optimism. There is much about life that is enjoyable. We can be happy and find fulfillment and satisfaction in our daily labors. But in all of those good things, we as followers of Jesus Christ need to be careful that we don’t miss what God’s will is for us by getting caught up in the pleasures of earthly things.
Verse 14 says, “I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.” We know that whatever God does will stand the test of time. His good works are permanent, and they have a lasting impact on all of eternity, from before time began until after this world has ended. We need to humbly follow Him, knowing that while we seek to grasp the larger picture of our lives, God indeed knows the whole big picture for all of humanity! But if a person does not believe in God and His good purposes, then their life will seem meaningless, and they won’t find their true purpose.
Perhaps we can find our purpose by looking at what God has already done, as the Teacher suggests in verse 15. History does repeat itself, which we can see both from the Biblical record of history and outside of it. God keeps showing us the lessons that His people should have learned throughout history in the hope that we will finally understand and live out our true purpose in life: to live our lives to give Him glory.
Every day we should be asking God what he has for us today. We can make our own plans, but we need to be ready for God's plans to intercept our plans. We are called to walk with God and to listen to Him in everything, even in the daily responsibilities that we have. We know that everything and everyone has an appointed purpose and time, but we may not know what that is until God reveals it to us.
We are all given a choice: will I let God be my focus today? Will I seek Him first? We don't always see the profit of each day, but God does. It may just seem like another day of ordinary routine, but maybe God has something exciting or extraordinary planned for you this day. Perhaps today is the day that we will grasp another small piece of the big picture that God has and our role in His grand plan.
We have the capacity to seek our purpose in this life, and we should ask God to reveal it to us. Perhaps He will give you a big piece of it, or maybe it’ll just be a tiny glimpse, but either way, if we’re not watching for it, we’ll miss it. When we live our lives in light of God’s timing, everything will be beautiful as a part of His perfect plan.
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The more I read and study Scripture, the more I see that God truly does things differently than we do. I heard this statement that pretty well sums it up: “If you want to know what the will of God is, look at what the world would do naturally, and do the opposite.” God truly does things completely upside down from how we normally would do things. Serving people is among them.
Since the history of civilization there have been rulers and servants. I know this is a strange concept to us as Americans, but in the bulk of the world’s nations in history, the role of the common people is to serve their rulers. Because they have titles and honor, they “deserve” our praise. But God doesn’t go for popularity or seeking the opinions of men. When Jesus came to this earth, He didn’t come to be proclaimed king over Judah, even though He had the legal right to do so. Instead, He came to serve, and He taught us how to serve.
In Matthew 25, among Jesus’ final parables, Jesus describes the final judgment where the sheep and goats will be separated; where the legit and the fakes will be revealed. One of the tests that will be used is how we treat those whom God has chosen. Who has God chosen? The weak, the poor, the desolate, the isolated, the widow, the homeless, and all those who the world rejects. Jesus makes a key statement here: “If you did this to the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me.” If you took care of God’s people, you took care of God. If you didn’t take care of them, you weren’t out to serve God. Plain and simple.
Jesus gave five examples of how to serve Him: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, give clothes to the naked, help the sick, and visit the imprisoned. Now, Jesus also told Judas that the poor would always be with him when Judas sought to get Mary’s jar of perfume to sell so he could get some of the money. Jesus isn’t saying to solve the world’s hunger problem.
Take notice that Jesus never once made any social reform. There are a lot of political talking points regarding immigration today that take these verses and say we have to welcome all these people into our country because if we don’t, we aren’t serving Christ. This is not what Jesus said at all. He did NOT say, “Rome, it is your responsibility to serve my poor.” That was never the government’s job. It is the church’s job. To illustrate this issue, I’ll address something going on in my backyard.
I live just outside the city limits of El Paso, Texas. On the street I take to get out, there is an immigration center for unaccompanied youth being built. This center is supposed to house up to 500 kids who did not come with parents or relatives and need to be processed before knowing whether to send them with relatives or send them back. This place is literally about a mile from my house. I really don’t care about what the political answer should be, though I’ve already seen the protestors. It’s rather comical because the street it’s on is rather empty. It’s mostly truck drivers from the quarries. But my first reaction was not what the world would think: “Oh no, they are invading my neighborhood. They are going to destroy everything. Stop child prisons! Stop environmental racism (yes, that was a protest sign)!” Those people have no clue what they are protesting or why. They are just reacting to what the media told them to respond to. But here was my response: “What can I do? I live a mile away. I have to drive past it to get out of my house. What can I do?”
I have no idea what I can do about this place or how to serve these kids. I am a teacher so maybe I can provide some tutoring. Maybe with some training, I can help with placement tests for those likely to stay in the U.S. to find out what grade level the kid should be in. My Spanish is not great, but maybe I can do something. As it is a government facility, I would likely need to get some kind of clearance or permission. I have no idea if I can do anything. But my first reaction was: “What can I do?” And that thought has not gone away in the past few months since I first heard about it.
This could be like David Wilkerson. Not many people think about what got him started in the youth gang ministry of New York City as a tiny (literally) pastor from a town of nowhere Pennsylvania. He saw an article about seven gang members who were on trial for the murder of a disabled boy. He had no clue what he was going to do, but he sensed he had to do something. He went to the court and after one session, he sought to approach the judge, totally clueless about the tension in the room. Everyone thought he was about to jump the judge. He got a picture taken and the newspaper posted a not so accurate or pleasant story about a pastor invading the court. Wilkerson never did get to make any contact with the boys he had a burden for. However, that incident gave him credence with the gangs because he too was seen as an “unfriendly” with the police. And with me, I may not be able to do anything at this facility. I am not planning on doing anything stupid, but maybe it will open a door to something I couldn’t imagine doing at the school I am currently at. I don’t know, but I do know this: until God shuts the door, it is something I am going to have to investigate.
What is my motive for this? Ultimately, it is doing what Christ commanded in this passage in Matthew 25. It is Christ speaking through me saying, “I want to do something, and I am inviting you to come with me.” What is Christ calling you to do? These are God’s people. These are the ones He cherishes. It is impossible to love God and not love those He loves. The kids coming to this facility have had difficult experiences. The government stats indicate that about ¼ of them are being trafficked. And here in El Paso/Juarez, child prostitution is the #1 money maker next to drugs. Sex, alcohol, and drugs are the spiritual strongholds of this area and one only needs to drive the highways to see all the clubs to witness it. That’s without addressing the heavy levels of the occult and witchcraft in the area. Yet, at my school, and at this facility, this is the world my students have grown up in. God is doing something in my heart about all this. I don’t know where He is taking me, but I know for sure that God is placing me where I am to be His hands and His feet to the least of these. And if I do not follow Him on it, it could be one of the greatest mistakes I could ever make. If I do follow Him, it will be filled with hardships and challenges, but the reward will be something I cannot even fathom.
What is God calling you to do to serve Him? What can you be doing right now?
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As I continue on in my “The Foundation Matters” series, I’d like to take some time to look at why this topic matters so much in today’s world. I would like to show you a real-life example of how this way of thinking and getting back to the foundational beliefs of this nation and biblical thinking is not old fashioned or “stuffy.” It is very much needed in our world.
This clip is from the popular game show called Let’s Make a Deal. It has been making its rounds on social media with people posting things like, “This is so sad,” and “I feel bad for this guy.” This is good to hear. However, how many people these days keep deciding to take this wide path in their life? They take a chance on having a relationship with someone who seems to only have their own interests in mind. Many seem to be hoping to forego the natural consequences of hurt and heartache from their actions in this whole process.
It is pretty clear that they guy in the relationship thinks they are a serious couple and she is struggling with this idea even though they have admitted in public to sharing a bed together. Now, to be fair, all the awkwardness and hurt of this situation is not on the young lady, and it is not all on the young man either.
By getting back to our Biblical foundations and not only knowing what to do but actually following these words with our actions and lives, we can then start living with much less hurt and heartache.
Proverbs 5:1-10 says:
My son, pay attention to my wisdom, turn your ear to my words of insight,
that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.
For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil;
but in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave.
She gives no thought to the way of life; her paths wander aimlessly, but she does not know it.
Now then, my sons, listen to me; do not turn aside from what I say.
Keep to a path far from her, do not go near the door of her house,
lest you lose your honor to others and your dignity to one who is cruel,
lest strangers feast on your wealth and your toil enrich the house of another.
What men need to understand is that we need to be the ones who take responsibility. We need to be the ones to stop wanting to just get pleasure for pleasure’s sake, and we need to lead by example. Live out self-control and patience. We need to start treating women with love and respect. As Scripture warns, we should keep a path far from those women who want to lead men down a path where men will lose their honor and dignity. As it states, “do not go near the door of her house.”
If you’d like to read up more on this please take time to read the rest of Proverbs 5 and all of Proverbs 7.
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After the Teacher spent basically the first two chapters of Ecclesiastes deciding that many things are meaningless when simply looked at from the world’s perspective, he changes gears a bit here. Today’s passage of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 is likely familiar to anyone who grew up with the music of the 1960s, as it was made popular with this song by The Byrds.
But while it seems that this passage may be a little different than the rest of the book, it is still connected to the main theme. While the things of this earth may be meaningless on their own, when we do things in God’s timing, then everything has the meaning and purpose that God intended for it.
The theme of this section is found in verse 1: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” We may not understand the timing of everything, as God is God and we are not, but we can trust in these words that God has the proper timing and season for everything; we just need to discern what it is.
In the rest of this passage, the Teacher outlines specific examples of things that God has in His timing. Birth and death are mentioned first (verse 2), as they are the things that begin and end our time under the sun. Today we have much more control over these things in Solomon’s day with all of our advances in technology and medical care, but God is still ultimately sovereign over when a person is born and when a person dies. Next, planting and uprooting are mentioned. While these are more controlled by humans, if we don’t get the timing right, then these activities are meaningless and will not provide the fruit that we desire.
Verse 3 gives examples of killing and healing, tearing down and building up. The contrast of killing and healing can relate to many aspects of life - war vs peace, capital punishment vs rehabilitation for those who commit crimes, etc. Tearing down and building up primarily refer to economic development, but they can also refer to our lives as Christians. Do we tear down others by saying negative things, or do we build them up by our encouraging words?
Emotions are dealt with in verse 4: weeping, laughing, mourning, and dancing. There are appropriate times for all of these in our lives. Romans 12:15 tells us, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” It is appropriate and good for followers of Jesus to show emotions. We should not always put on a happy face when it is a time to weep or mourn. Even Jesus showed emotions of sadness (see John 11:35).
Verse 5 reminds us of appropriate times to do away with things versus gathering them up. It also tells us there is a time to embrace and a time to refrain from it, meaning there are times it is important to show love but also times where it is important not to show love, referring to romantic love.
Verses 6-7 deal with receiving and giving - searching vs giving things up, keeping vs throwing away, tearing vs mending, and being silent vs speaking. Sometimes we are the giver, whereas sometimes we are the receiver.
Verse 8 is likely one of the main reason this song became popular in the 1960s - it discusses a time to love vs hate, and a time for war vs peace. That decade saw many movements about love and peace instead of violence and war. But as the Teacher tells us, there are appropriate times for each of these.
I believe that we can all identify with times in this list, both in our own lives and in our communities. Which times are you going through right now? Which have you recently come through in your life?
It’s easy to get overwhelmed when we forget that God has appointed these times. We can get so caught up in our daily lives and in the circumstances and details surrounding these times that we don’t put them into God’s perspective. God has ordained each of these times and seasons in our lives, and He will use them for His greater purposes. Sometimes we need to go through these seasons multiple times before we truly learn the message that God has for us through it.
When you feel like things are falling apart in your life, hold onto the fact that we have to go through rhythms of good times and bad times. Why? They are all for God’s glory. We need to give God glory for the good times and the difficult times, so people will see that example and they can glorify God also, no matter what kind of season they are walking through.
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