Hope Discovery of the Day:
While we are on a mission, God is on one, too – to change us into His image.
Scripture of the Day:
Philippians 1:12
“I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that my situation has actually turned out to advance the gospel.”
What is our initial response when things go awry? The range of emotions varies widely from despair to complaining to apathy. But what if we were to turn our circumstances on their head and have a Mode of Operandi that says, “How can this circumstance serve to advance the gospel?”
Mission.
This is hard to do in our casings of flesh where we are accustomed to answering to the demands of what our flesh wants. It requires a different mentality focused on viewing all of this life’s surprises and mishaps as a constant mission. While changing our mindset to considering trials as part of God’s mission field for us, the amazing thing is that we are on a mission, God is on one, too.
Rather than just surviving life’s challenges, we can see them as part of God’s mission to transform us into His image. God made a promise to complete the work He began in us and sometimes that takes a little heat. The good news is that everything that comes from the hand of God has a purpose in our lives and will be used for good and God’s glory as we trust Him in the midst.
Thinking of Others.
What? Think of other people when my life is falling apart? Believe it or not, when we think about our overwhelming problems too much, it actually makes everything worse. But when we look at people around us and think about what they might be going through, somehow our problems diminish in our own eyes.
So how can a really yucky circumstance REALLY become a mission? Now when I find myself in a hard situation, I ask the LORD, “who’s gonna get saved? Somebody’s gotta get saved if I am going through this.” It makes me smile to type that, but this is truly what I think. How does someone experience God when we are suffering? When we rise above it all and glorify God by not giving in to the pain around us. When we try to reflect on God’s graciousness to us in the challenges life brings instead of focusing on what we thing is wrong.
Ultimately, it is not about us, after all. We live for His glory. When our lives are poured out on mission for God and His glory for the benefit of others, we have joy and peace uncontainable and GOd provides what we need.
What seems impossible with man is possible with God. He can help us to develop an attitude of gratitude at all times and change our perspective of trials, in general. Why bother trying to turn our moments of difficulty into an opportunity to share the gospel? Our pain becomes our triumph. Our hardship earns us an eternal reward. Ultimately, our response in the fire just might change someone else’s life and eternity.
Lord, thank You for everything You allow into our lives, even those things that seem unlovely or uncomfortable, or maybe even devastating to us. Help us to have Your attitude toward suffering and to be on mission at every point of our lives that some may come to know You.
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