When Things Do Not Go My Way
The Lord’s insight. Believers are called to Be and to give, not to get and to have.
1 Peter 3:17: “For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.”
Luke 22:42: “Father if it is Your will, take this cup from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Yours be done.”
It was a real surprise to me the day I realized my belief and faith in Christ changed my mind on what I had always thought was right for me. I learned that there would be many times where I would be expected to give when before I had wanted to get or to have.
Look at 1 Peter 3 again. Perhaps it is saying to us that there will be consequences that come our way whether we do good or whether we do evil. One way or another, we will suffer good or evil outcomes from our actions if they are good or evil. But in the world, believers should not always or only expect good outcomes to be the result of good actions.
In the world, we will get good outcomes from good actions, and we will get bad outcomes from good actions. We will also get bad outcomes from evil actions, and we will get good outcomes from evil actions. The world does not care about good for good or evil for evil. And the world does not care if things go the way you want them to go.
If you are the type of person who wants to have things to go your way, you better be the type of person who wants the Lord to be the provider of the things that happen to you.
I have learned that being a believer does not mean that I can now have all that is rightfully mine. It does not mean that all things will go the way I want things to go. It does not mean I get to have something from the world that I couldn’t otherwise have.
Listen, in the world you can never rightfully have anything anyway. Why would you want the world to be forced to give you what it does not want to give? The value of a forced apology is nothing compared to the sincere regret of the person who apologizes before you and who seeks your forgiveness before the Lord.
When you live like everything must go your way for you to be happy, you will likely never be happy. And if we say it is not about being happy but about having what is right for us, all we can ever have is the thing that someone else does not want us to have.
Remember we are called to Be and to Give more than we are called to get or to have. Our disposition should be this. “Lord, if it is Your will, make my friend return what he stole from me; nevertheless, that is what I want, but if You want something different, that is what I want more than anything.”
In this way, you allow yourself to Be merciful, to Be grateful, to Be forgiving and to Be giving of what you do not rightfully have to give. And in this way the world sees mercy, and grace and forgiveness and selflessness in ways that these things will be produced in more of us.
So, how is this better for you? Because the Lord blesses the people who are merciful, who are grateful, who are forgiving, who are willing to suffer for doing good for the good of those in the world who know no good. For Christ suffered for the Just and for the Unjust. And we were all unjust before being made Just through Him.
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