Wednesday Devotion 7-15-20

Good evening everyone,,, I am going to do a Wednesday devotion each week and I will try to post them at 6:00 PM each week.

I will do this every week until we begin holding services together again.

Hopefully they will help us to stay connected each week while we are apart and give us something to think about as we go about our week.

This week I wanted to talk about a devotion that I read from Billy Graham about Romans 5:3-4.

He titled it “Making us like Christ”.

Romans 5 verses 3-4 say We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Billy Graham said that God can take anything that happens to us—even bad things—and use it to shape us and make us into a better, more Christ-like person—if we will let Him.

This doesn’t mean God necessarily causes everything that happens to us; sometimes He only allows things to happen.

Often, for instance, bad things happen to us because we made bad decisions—decisions that were the opposite of God’s will for us.

When that’s the case, we can’t blame God for the consequences.

Also,,, when we have things like murder or robberies or other bad things like this,,, these are a result of sin in the world and the bad choices that the people made when they decided to do these terrible things.

That doesn’t mean that God made these things happen.

Any time this comes up,,, I always think of my accident where I lost my arm and I’m reminded of the warnings that I had before it happened.

I had a loud buzzer that goes off when I get off the tractor with the PTO in gear.

I had warnings written on several places on the tractor warning of this.

I had warnings written on the PTO shaft about having the guard in place that I had removed.

I knew that I shouldn’t have on loose clothing around moving machinery.

I had all of these warnings but I still had the ability to ignore them and make the wrong choices that morning.

The point that I’m trying to make is that I had a choice and I made the wrong choice and I have to live with that choice.

I cannot blame God for that happening when He tried so many times to warn me before hand.

It seems like some people will try to blame God for everything bad that happens to them but that’s probably not true every time.

You will need to go to the Lord in prayer and ask for answer’s if you think that’s so and He will answer if you truly seek the answer.

Sometimes, however, we don’t know why God allows bad things to happen to us.

But even then, however, God can use them to teach us and make us into better people.

Disappointments and tragedies, for example, can teach us to turn in trust to God for the hope and comfort we need.

These experiences can also teach us patience, and make us more sensitive to others who are suffering.

Are you going through a difficult time lately?

If so,,, then ask God to use it to increase your faith and make you more like Christ.

God Bless you,,,

Let us pray,,,

Dear Heavenly Father,,, We thank you for watching over us and everything that you do for us. We ask that you help us to see that we need to use every situation to make us better Christians. Help us to see that we need you in our life guiding us each and every day. We ask now that you continue to watch over us,,, guide us and lead us. We ask all of this in Jesus’ name,,, Amen