My facebook status this past week has been-Caleb Spitler stopped believing in bad days. This reflects one thing God has been teaching me. The story of Joseph which can be found in Genesis 37 has given me a totally new perspective on life. Going back to Romans 12 “his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” I realized how many times we question that. God why did you let this happen to me? God I wanted to go to Peru. God why won’t my car start the first time? All of those things are MY perspective on what is good for me. Not God’s perspective. God might be thinking-“Caleb if your car would have started the first time you would have hit a deer, so I stalled it for a second to keep you safe”. Or “Caleb you don’t know anything about those countries, you just want to go to Peru because it sounds cool, I know the people you will be ministering to and where you need to be”.
I’m sure Joseph thought he was having a bad day when his father rebuked him, or when he was sold into slavery, or when he was thrown into jail for being a man of integrity, or when the cup bearer forgot to tell the pharoah about him and he was in prison for two years, when really God was in control the whole time, and every one of those occurences brought him a step closer in God’s plan to making him the second most powerful man on earth, and feeding the whole country and his family.
This makes me wonder if anything bad has ever happended to me, or if God has always been in control and working things out for his GOOD, PLEASING, and PERFECT WILL!! Easy answer to that question! I was at a Steven Curtis Chapman concert the other week, and just a month before his 5 year old daughter had died in a car accident. My heart goes out to his family, and I’m sure I have no idea what they are going through, but I still cannot call it “bad”. Things may be extremely difficult for us to go through, and hard to understand God’s will on, but I do not believe his truth can be swayed by the severity of our circumstances. Because of Steven’s story I believe more lives were touched that night.
Whether it’s something little or something huge in our eyes, not only may we not currently know God’s will, but he is not bound to ever reveal his will to us. When Job lost everything, and Job questions him, in Chapter 38(check it out!) God answers him with reminding him of who is GOD and who is man. Not only do I find peace in being able to trust that things that do not look good in my narrow view, or to my feeble mind, are in God’s COMPLETE control, but I also want to be careful not to blame the ALL KNOWING GOD for things that may appear bad to me!!! Matthew 7:11 “If you, then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to you children how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him”. Now instead of getting down about something that doesn’t go how I planned or wanted it to go, I can praise God in knowing that he knows whats best for my life!!!
I posted this somewhere else, but Jamie said I should put it as a blog post and maybe it will be encouraging to people too.
Great concept – stop believing in bad days. I think i’ll give it a try.
I love this blog and it so describes my heart as of late. If only I keep my eyes fixed on my heavenly father..there is no such thing as a bad day. Why then do I transfer my focus to the things of this world…
wow. random picture.
post a new blog!
have you met a snake or llama yet?
praying for you, of course. hey guess what? i really wanted a pear and went into melton and lo and behold, there were pears! i didn’t even pray that one in! haha.
p.s. amen to god’s GOOD, perfect and pleasing will.
it is not a random pic-its like hmmm am I having a bad day? No surprisingly no snakes or llamas. I was even in the jungle yesterday and no snakes. I went swimming in this like lake in the jungle and I figured and anaconda would eat me, but guess not. It was in the mountains tho so it was probable too cold. Wow you are crazy like that.