God uses our tough times

Do you recite your woes more naturally than you do heaven's strength?  No wonder life's tough. You're assuming God isn't in this crisis.

Isabel spent her first three and a half years in a Nicaraguan orphanage. As with all orphans, her odds of adoption diminished with time. And then the door slammed on her finger! Why would God permit this innocent girl to feel even more pain? Might He be calling the attention of Ryan Schnoke sitting in the playroom nearby? He and his wife had been trying to adopt a child for months! Ryan walked over, picked her up, and comforted her. Several months later, Ryan and Christina were close to giving up, and Ryan remembered Isabel. Little Isabel is now growing up in a happy, healthy home.

A finger in the door? God doesn't manufacture pain, but He certainly puts it to use!  Your crisis?  You'll get through this!

From You'll Get Through This

By Max Lucado

Sent from my iPad

Thank you God

If you feel the world owes you something, brace yourself. You'll never get reimbursed! Henry Ward Beecher said, "A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves."  The sky is never blue enough, the steak isn't cooked enough, the universe isn't good enough to deserve a human being like you.

Pursue gratitude.  The grateful heart is like a magnet, sweeping over the day, collecting reasons for gratitude. Thank you, God.  Your lungs inhale and exhale 11,000 liters of air every day. Thank you, God. For the jam on our toast and the milk on our cereal, the blanket that calms us and the joke that softens us and the warm sun that reminds us of God's love. Gratitude leaves us looking at God and away from dread. It does to anxiety what morning sun does to valley mist. It burns it up!

Thank you God.

From Max Lucado.

Sent from my iPad

Verse of the day

Romans 1:16 ESV

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."

See it at YouVersion.com:

http://bible.com/59/rom.1.16.esv

Sent from my iPad

God is good!

When the cancer is in remission, we say, God is good. When the pay raise comes, we announce, God is good. But is God only good when the outcome is?

Most, if not all of us, have a contractual agreement with God. I pledge to be a good, decent person and God, in return, will do what I expect.  Save my child.  Heal my wife.  Protect my job. Yet when God fails to meet our expectations we're left spinning in a tornado of questions.

In such times, remember that God is sovereign.  James 1:17 tells us He does not change like shifting shadows. God does permit evil.  But He doesn't allow Satan, the father of evil, to triumph. Isn't this the promise of Romans 8:28?  "In all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." The ultimate culmination of God's purpose is good even when the specific details are difficult.

From Max Lucado.

Sent from my iPad