Instead

(The following post is an e-mail I received during Northview Church's 30 Days of Prayer campaign. The original can be found here.)

REFLECT

You have been down many paths. All of them have taken effort and involved choices. Some paths you took with other people; some paths you walked alone. You will never pass that exact same way again. And you have brought something back with you from those places.

You have memories of these paths…some pleasant, some unsettling. You gained experiences from these paths and choices…some precious, some traumatic and some you now wish you had avoided. You brought back beliefs and impressions of how things are and how things work.

Did you know that God wants to redeem the hard things you have been through? Did you know that He can transform the results of the bad choices? Did you know that, despite the limitations and pain you feel, He is still in control and He is love?

Did you know that, in all of this, you are the prize of God, meant for the eternal display of His splendor? There is something much bigger going on here than what you see.

PRAY

Lord, I don’t understand why things have turned out this way. In many ways, I don’t see how you can fix things or make my life have meaning and true value. However, you have told me that you have this all worked out, and that you have my eternal best interest at heart, that you have a purpose and a plan specifically for me. I surrender my right to understand and my desire to control. May I simply believe, trust and follow. Amen.

READ

ISAIAH 61:1-3 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.