No Surprise
Many years ago I came across this statement: "Pain plants the flag of reality in the fortress of a rebel heart." Even among those who have been stubborn and rebellious, when pain hits and persists, reality comes in full measure.
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Insight for Today
Written by Chuck Swindoll, these encouraging devotional thoughts are published seven days per week.
Accepting God's Plan
David, in Psalm 139, makes the appropriate comment, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it" (v. 6). If David lived today, he would write, "This blows my mind." The vastness of God's inscrutability has a way of doing that to us—and so it should.
Grace Under Pressure
Refuse to believe that life is based on blind fate or random chance. Everything that happens, including the things you cannot explain or justify, is being woven together like an enormous, beautiful piece of tapestry. From this earthly side it seems blurred and knotted, strange and twisted. But from heaven's perspective it forms an incredible picture.
God Will Reward
Just as we are different in our appearance, our background, and our levels of maturity and chronological age, so we experience different tests. For all you know, the person living in your neighbourhood is going through one of the deepest times of her or his life.
His Purpose
I'd love to get into my pickup after a tough day at the church, turn the radio on, and have God interrupt, saying, "Before you listen to this station, Chuck, I want to talk to you for a few minutes." Let face it, all of us would love to hear an audible voice or read a visible message from God. But that's not the way it works. Our walk with Him is a walk of faith, not sight.
Demonstrating Class
All of God's people find here a valuable truth we can learn from our God. When people come, open and vulnerable with their confession, there is one appropriate three-word response: I forgive you. They don't need to be put on the spot or shamed because they failed. They need the assurance of forgiveness.
Harsh but Realistic
Refuse to let the accusations discourage and derail you, remembering they are nonsense and lies. Get tough! Returning to that one-liner from the Revolutionary War, "Trust in God but keep your powder dry," is essential to keeping your balance. You may be trusting the Lord for safety, but you still lock your doors every night, hopefully, and turn on your alarm.
Stay with the Truth
Chances are good that many of you who are reading these lines are currently the target of someone's lying accusations. That can be an anguishing cross to bear. I've been there, so I speak from painful experience.
Silencing Lies
Let's fast-forward momentarily and face the music. Some of you who are reading these words have awfully sharp tongues. You say things that cut, but you couch your words in phrases that sound pious and even eloquent. They can sound super religious at times, but they're hurtful and damaging. They imply much more than is actually said. It is here that self-control plays such a vital role.
A Context of Pain
There is nothing like hope in the truth to clarify perspective and keep you going. Enduring a painful journey can be done a lot more easily if you embrace truth as your travelling companion. Not only will it give you hope, it will clarify your perspective.
