Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Tuesday, February 5, 2019

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."¹

In his commencement address to Stanford's 2005 graduating class, Steven Jobs, founder of Apple Computer, shared how he and his friend, Woz, started Apple in his garage and within ten years it grew to a $2 billion company. He also shared how he was fired from his own organization and in his words, "I didn't see it then, but getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

"During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, and another company named Pixar. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance."²

Not to the same degree by any means, but in a similar way this is how ACTS was started. At the time I was the South Australian director of a well-known youth organization. I changed our approach to ministry by commencing direct mail evangelism and included reaching adults as well as teenagers. I was told by the powers that be that my ministry didn't fit the required role and was asked to either give up my ministry, stay with the current methods (which weren't working that great anyhow), or get out of the organization. I chose the latter. It, too, was the best thing that happened to me at the timeâ€"as frightening as it was. Like you, I've been through other seeming crises, too, which have all turned out far better than I could have ever dreamed or hoped for.

So, if it seems like your world is crumbling around you and your life is truly committed to God and his will for your life, choose to trust your life to him, and, in time, you too will discover that all things do work together for good for "those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you for every crisis in my life that you have made to work for good, and turned into a blessing beyond my wildest dreams. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. Romans 8:28 (NIV).
2. www.snopes.com/glurge/stevejobs.asp

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