How can remembering it's not about me give me back my joy?

Today's Precious Prodigal Post is at = http://bit.ly/1p96FCf How can remembering it's not about me give me back my joy? #Godalone Like what you see? Please "Like" us and "Share" this on FB!

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God…”

“It’s not about you.” That’s how Rick Warren begins his popular book, The Purpose Driven Life. And he’s right. It’s not about you, and it’s not about me. But wait a minute. What about Jeremiah 29:11 that tells me God has a plan for me…a plan to prosper me and give me hope and a future?

The King of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland said, “Begin at the beginning…” And when we look at the beginning, it was God and only God. (Gen 1:1) And He had a plan before He laid the foundations of the earth. While that plan includes you and me, the plan was never about you and me. It was and is and ever will be about God.

That doesn’t mean we don’t have a purpose. We absolutely do. But it’s God’s purpose and plan that will be accomplished, and that plan often…maybe even always…differs from our own. To begin with, God created us to bring honor and glory to Himself and to have fellowship with Him.

We pretty well blew that one, didn’t we? Knowing myself like I do, I will never completely understand why He would redeem me, call me by my name and say I am His. (Isa 43:1) Nor can I understand why He continues to be patient with me today. But He did and He does. And, like our prodigals, God’s purpose is going to be accomplished whether through our obedience or through our disobedience.

But doesn’t Romans 8:28 say, “All things work together for good” when you love the Lord? It does indeed say that, but we can’t separate that from the next verse that says God’s purpose and the way all things “work together for good” is that those things will conform us to the image of His Son. (Rom 8:29) God doesn’t care about our comfort; He cares about our character.

This “Name it and Claim it” preaching had done more to create discouragement and hopelessness in Christians than any other single thing. It implies that only good things happen to good people if their faith is strong enough. Hmm…how shall I say this? Hogwash! We believe what’s not true and when it doesn’t happen, we blame God or ourselves. Again…Hogwash!

Why would we be immune from bad things happening? A quick look at the Scriptures will be a reality check. All Christ’s disciples except John died (and that not easily) for their faith. And John was banished to the Isle of Patmos. Stephen was the first but certainly not the last martyr. In fact, the only people who think faith in Christ doesn’t bring severe persecution, suffering and even death are those of us who live in a free country.

Knowing that ALL things are working together to accomplish God’s purpose should give us hope to face even the bad things. Why? Because although God doesn’t cause evil, even that is subject to His will and will accomplish His purpose…whether we understand it or not. And trusting Him will give us back our joy.

Challenge for Today: What might happen if we, just for today, realized it’s not about us and trusted that our circumstances will accomplish God’s purpose?