The course of life is never as we had hoped or predicted. Often we encounter unexpected hurdles and challenges. As a young man, I had my whole life mapped out in front of my eyes. I had dreams and visions about how things would work out. The future looked bright and unassailable. But life began to unfold in very different ways to what I had anticipated. Today my life looks nothing like what I had thought it would, but I have learned through the process and I can declare that God has been faithful through it all. In fact, today, my life is a testimony to the trials and processes that I have been through and as I look at the big picture, it is something to celebrate and thank God for.
Romans 8:28 ‘And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.’
It is the Lord who ‘takes all things’ and ‘works them together’ for our good. He may not do it in the way that we had thought it would be, be He still does it. This scripture is clear that He takes ‘ALL’ things and works them out for our good. He does not just take the good things, but He also takes that bad things that happen and uses them to His glory. So we can rest in Him. He will take all the things we face and go through and He will weave it into something good.
LIFE IS ABOUT THE JOURNEY, NOT THE DESTINATION.
Life is journey. The journey has stops and turns, many of which we cannot foresee. The book ‘PILGRIM’S PROGRESS’ by John Bunyan is a story about the journey. In this book John Bunyan looks at some of the things that we face in the course of life. He identifies many different aspects and gives them unique names: ‘Difficulty Hill, Palace Beautiful, Valley of Humiliation, Valley of the Shadow of Death, Doubting Castle and Giant of Despair, Delectable Mountains and Dark River. All these different aspects, and others, made up the course of the pilgrim’s journey. As we face the different aspects along the route that life takes us, the journey of life begins to unfold in the process. If we are only focused on the destination, we may feel that the dynamics of the journey are a distraction to the fulfillment of the vision we may have had. But it is the different aspects of life that become the journey of our lives. We need to get to the point where we ‘discover’ that the life is about the journey and not about the destination. The life of Joseph is an example of this dynamic. Joseph had a dream of what would become of his life. But before that could be realized he was taken down the journey of life. The journey included rejection, abandonment, slavery, false accusations, imprisonment and being forgotten. During all these tests be came out on top of the situation and God turned things around. Today we look at the life of Joseph and we see a tapestry of issues and happenings that all played a part in God’s great plan for Joseph and the people of Israel. We look at his journey and we are encouraged and inspired, not just because of the final outcome, but because of the process and the journey that led to the final outcome. Imagine the story of Joseph without the journey? It seems unimaginable. Your journey has a purpose and your process is not without a divine plan.
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