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

Monday, March 19, 2018

"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

Stephen Muncherian, in his sermon, "Oh, For One Good Lawyer" told about former heavy-weight boxer, James "Quick" Tillis, a cowboy from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who fought out of Chicago in the early 1980s. Tillis recalls how, on his first day in Chicago, after getting off the bus, he stood outside the Sears building and, putting his two suitcases down, looked up at the Tower and said to himself, "I'm going to conquer Chicago." When he looked down, his two suitcases were missing!²

That's Chicago! Having lived there when I went to college and looked up at and been to the top of the Sears Tower, I can empathize with Tillis.

We can be confident, excited, and positive one moment and be disillusioned the next. That's life. We live in a broken, sinful world and disappointments come to us all. We put our trust in people and get ripped off. We get hurt deeply when someone we love turns against and attacks us. We get our hearts broken when we are abandoned, rejected, or have lost a loved one through death.

Pain comes to us all. The important thing is that we don't allow these circumstances to make us resentful and bitter. God wants to use these situations to help us grow and make us better persons. Satan wants to use them to discourage us and make us bitter. Indeed, the negative circumstances of life can make us bitter or better. The choice is ours.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, no matter what happens to me help me always to remember that while it rains on the just as well as the unjust my life is ultimately in your hands, and that all things do work together for good to those who love and put their trust in you. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. Romans 8:28 (NIV).
2. Adapted from the sermon, "Oh, For One Good Lawyer!" by Rev. Stephen Muncherian. Cited on http://www.spiritofgracefellowship.org/.

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