Praise God Anyway
By Jon Walker
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NIV)
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God, who is omnipotent, sees the breadth and depth of our circumstances, and he knows his plans for our lives.
Thinking then like Christ, we can slowly, perhaps ever so slowly, begin to understand that avoiding the pain in our lives is actually an act of faithlessness.
God calls us to faith in him during difficult circumstances; yet, we place our faith in avoiding the circumstances.
Avoiding the mess – or having a bad attitude about the mess – may actually drive you away from God’s plan. Avoidance only enables you to keep your hopes hanging somewhere other than a deep, intimate relationship with the Creator.
Your perspective is important because it allows you to respond to God instead of reacting to your circumstance. This perspective lets God be your strength as he guides you to endure whatever problems you’re facing. It allows you to ask God, “What do you want me to do with this?” instead of falling into a “Why me?” trap.
Holding onto God when you’re in the middle of the mess teaches you about the faithfulness of God’s character. In the pressure cooker, your daily worship of God becomes irrevocably tied to your faith in God.
The nasty-now-and-now teaches you to praise God anyway. You mature toward the ability to make a choice to praise and worship God every day, no matter what circumstances you face in life.
Consider this question: If you believed that your current circumstances or problems were part of God’s big-picture, redemptive plan, how would you think and act differently?
(Hint: Read the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis.)
If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.
