When your hut is on fire
The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.
The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements, and to store his few possessions.
One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with smoke rolling up to the sky. He felt the worst had happened, and everything was lost.
He was stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger. He cried out, "God! How could you do this to me?" Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the island!
It had come to rescue him! "How did you know I was here?" asked the weary man of his rescuers. "We saw your smoke signal," they replied.
Moral of the Story:
It's easy to get discouraged when things are going bad or things have caused undue stress, but we shouldn't lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of our pain, suffering, or stress. Remember that the next time your little hut seems to be burning to the ground, it just may be a smoke signal that summons the Grace of God.
My Exhortation:
We should see life positively because God is constantly working even all the bad things that happen in our life together for our good, to collectively bring a glorious end at various point of time in our life (Rom 8:28). The two scriptures that the Bible has demonstrated God's sovereign work behind Satan's attack against his saints through two different circumstances are, one demonstrated by the positive mindset of an exemplary man of God and other by God Himself.
The first one is Joseph. After all the hardships he faced years together gloriously by God's grace, confessed to his brothers who were instruments of great pain in his past life, ""So then, it wasn't you who sent me here [in to exile]. It was God..." (Gen 45:8, NIrV). O what a positive attitude of priceless worth. Instead of being angry against His brothers who tortured him and sold him in to exile, he was mentally aligned with God's bigger perspective of "all things work together for [our] good" (Rom 8:28). God's works out His miracles not in a grumpy atmosphere of unbelief, but only in an aligned mind of faith which holds on to God's confidence and positive attitude that comes from Him.
The other time when God soveriegnly turned evil in to blessing is when Balak a heathen king tried to curse the nation of Israel through Balaam a False Prophet (Jos 13:22), here is what Nehemiah the great man of God said about what God did at that time, "When ...Balaam [was hired to pronounce curse against the Israelites]...However, our God turned the curse into a blessing." (Neh 13:2, NKJV). Only our God is specialised to turn a curse in to a blessing, a mess in to a message, a crisis in to a calling and a wretch in to a warrior. So have the attitude of faith and expect God to work greatly through your life. A heart of gratitude is a readily positioned and a clean vessel for a mighty grace infilling.
My Exhortation:
We should see life positively because God is constantly working even all the bad things that happen in our life together for our good, to collectively bring a glorious end at various point of time in our life (Rom 8:28). The two scriptures that the Bible has demonstrated God's sovereign work behind Satan's attack against his saints through two different circumstances are, one demonstrated by the positive mindset of an exemplary man of God and other by God Himself.
The first one is Joseph. After all the hardships he faced years together gloriously by God's grace, confessed to his brothers who were instruments of great pain in his past life, ""So then, it wasn't you who sent me here [in to exile]. It was God..." (Gen 45:8, NIrV). O what a positive attitude of priceless worth. Instead of being angry against His brothers who tortured him and sold him in to exile, he was mentally aligned with God's bigger perspective of "all things work together for [our] good" (Rom 8:28). God's works out His miracles not in a grumpy atmosphere of unbelief, but only in an aligned mind of faith which holds on to God's confidence and positive attitude that comes from Him.
The other time when God soveriegnly turned evil in to blessing is when Balak a heathen king tried to curse the nation of Israel through Balaam a False Prophet (Jos 13:22), here is what Nehemiah the great man of God said about what God did at that time, "When ...Balaam [was hired to pronounce curse against the Israelites]...However, our God turned the curse into a blessing." (Neh 13:2, NKJV). Only our God is specialised to turn a curse in to a blessing, a mess in to a message, a crisis in to a calling and a wretch in to a warrior. So have the attitude of faith and expect God to work greatly through your life. A heart of gratitude is a readily positioned and a clean vessel for a mighty grace infilling.
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