Living a life of obedience, love, joy, and more love brings fullness to one’s life. Read Luke 1:26-56. What are expressions of obedience, trust, love, and joy? Do you see from this passage of scripture?
We have a hard time telling the difference between the words “to” and “for.” Jacob and his family also had a hard time with this. When they went down to Egypt, they thought things were happening to them when actually, by God’s mercy and providence, things were happening for them. Good things – spectacular things – were ahead.
Genesis 42:27-28 – At the place where they lodged for the night, one of them opened his sack to get feed for his donkey, and he saw his money there at the top of the bag. 28 He said to his brothers, “My money has been returned! It’s here in my bag.” Their hearts sank. Trembling, they turned to one another and said, “What is this that God has done to us?”
Jacob’s sons had a guilty conscience. The knowledge o four own lawbreaking nature makes it hard for us to look grace in the eye. We are suspicious of both divine and human favor because our unworthiness taints our ability to trust. We are waiting for the other shoe to drop. We stand in awe when we have unexpected provision, yet we don’t find joy in it. We accuse God of doing things “to” us instead of trusting He is doing things “for” us.
For – those providential twists and turns piercing themselves together for my benefit. A human’s perspective is this is a “to”. When we get the “to” ‘s and “for”‘s twisted around, we end up in a fog of disheartening circumstances that seem to point away from God’s goodness, not towards it.
What have you learned from that experience? What helped you realize God was doing something good for you instead of something harmful to you?
