Unquantified

Have you ever felt robbed?

When you look at your life, do you feel at times like you got shortchanged? Bamboozled? Cheated?

Sometimes we are not happy with the way certain situations work out, or the way certain things seem to go in our lives.  Sometimes, it’s just life.  But then there are other times.

Times when we believe that somewhere it went wrong. The path of our life went haywire. And we wonder how and why.

Although the answer I am about to propose is not always the case, it applies to many of the things in my own life as I look back, and I believe that most folks will find it is true for many of their own lives as well.

John 10:10 records Jesus saying that the thief comes only to kill, steal, and destroy.  But how many times do we act as unwitting accomplices?

Often times bad decisions, our own desires, or just plain old rebelliousness and sin cause us to play right into the snares of the enemy.  We make our judgments about our life by how we feel, not by prayer, obedience, waiting on God or even so much as seeking wise counsel.  And sometimes the consequences of these actions cause things to happen in our lives that bring unsatisfactory results and situations.

We have played a role in a crime against ourselves.  Not our intentions, but it happened and now we have to deal with it.

So, when we find ourselves in these situations, what do we do?  Forgive me, but the term “learning experience” and “growth” are generally just euphemisms for “Boy, I blew it and I know it, but do not have a clue as to how to deal with it.”

There is a theme throughout the New Testament. I will give a couple of verses to get the idea across.  2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that if anyone is in Christ he is a new creature. The old is gone, the new is here. (Not a direct quote, trying to be brief.) In Revelation 21:5, John heard the voice of God say “Behold, I make all things new.”

Basically what we can infer from that is this: whatever we have lost, whatever has been stolen from us, whatever went wrong, God can do better than fix it.  He has the ability to make all things new.  And if we let Him, He will.  But He will have to start with us.

It would do no good to make everything else new if we went right back to being an unwitting accomplice.  We need God to renew us first, our hearts, our minds, our spirits, then work on the externals.

Otherwise, we would be like a shiny new car with an engine that would not run, wheels that would not turn, and a missing transmission.  Bluntly, we would not be going anyplace.

The times we realize that we have allowed ourselves to be robbed, and even helped the robber, we need to submit to God. Seek Him, and allow Him to make all things new.

Blessings to you. Thanks for stopping by.