Bruce and I just finished reading Acts 23. I understood that in a way I never have before. It's the account of Paul going before the council and the 40-plus Jews making an oath of not eating or drinking until Paul is killed. The chief priest and the council agreed to set up Paul to be murdered. That evening the Lord Jesus Himself comes to the side of Paul to encourage him to continue to testify of Him and that he will need to do so in Rome. The rest of the chapter is how God moved and used whoever He wanted to get Paul to Rome! It's really an amazing chapter of how God uses even unbelievers to work all things out for His plan and purpose!
It made me think about situations in our own lives. We can never fully understand why we are in the situation we are in at the time. God could be moving heaven and earth to get His vessels where He wants them so we can glorify and testify of His Name. I'm sure Paul taking the beating of his life, being rescued by Roman soldiers and then them accompanying him to Rome was no where on Paul's radar screen of having been wrought by God. But thanks be to God for His Word that gives us a glimpse behind the scene of how He works out His plan and how He uses His tools for His glory!
2 comments:
Good post! I agree, there are some things that have happened to me in my life that I can't/couldn't believe God would allow, even when I prayed that certain things wouldn't happen specifically. But I know that God was there all the time, God knew those things would happen before they happened and God will allow ANYTHING into our lives to bring us closer to Him. We think about ourselves so much when it really isn't about us at all, it's ALL about Him.
So true! We just read a post by someone else who was talking about Israel and how Joseph got put in his position in Egypt by the most unlikely of ways, BEFORE they needed him.
God is so good to give us glimmers of who He is and that He has us in mind in our circumstances. Even if we don't know what His next step is we have learned (not easy all the time) that we can trust Him.
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