And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28
“God may change a promise, but not break a promise.” The Lord shall give that which is good.” He may change a temporal for a spiritual blessing; He may not increase “the basket and the store,” but He may increase the faith and the patience; He may cease to give His people pieces of silver, but He may give them treasures of gold.”
Thomas Watson in Puritan Gems; or, Wise and Holy Saying of the Rev. Thomas Watson, Anglican Minister. edited and arranged by the Rev. John Adey (London: Snow and Ward, 1850) 114.
I had a hard day yesterday. Let me explain and maybe you can relate?
God gave our team good things for which we were unprepared. He gave us challenges to grow our faith and patience when we were expecting increase in the basket and the store. Sound familiar?
It was a rare day with margin for rest in the schedule that got exchanged with troubles. Thankfully God helped us navigate them. God works for good, but not always the kind of good we expect.
As a result of the challenges, we determined to change hotels and realized only later that God wanted us on that side of the city for only a day and He had work for us on the other side of the city.
Sometimes the good that God gives us is temporal. It takes shape as provision in physical form. But other times, like yesterday, I got opportunities to grow in faith and patience.
As I process the experiences, I realize I had margin for the challenges. God used them, in part to mold and grow our Pakistan team. Now early the next morning I celebrate God’s generosity in this.
Thanks God for your goodness to us supplying spiritual gold when sometimes we hope for temporal silver.
And after a long morning and afternoon, a sweet blessing was to see beautiful flowers line the street to the location where we had an amazing event.
I shot the header photo from the front seat of the Uber. I felt like it was a warm welcome from the LORD. Then the time with influential workers went so well, praise God.
Peer accountability will come to Pakistan by God’s grace.