The All-Important First Response

Scripture:  Romans 8:28 (NASB) - And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
                             
One of our favorite board games that my family enjoys playing is “Stuff Happens.”  Isn’t that what we often hear folks say about the barrage of tough things that happen on occasion?  What’s at the root of that statement?  Is it our frustration over the event itself, our resignation about the reality that we cannot control everything that happens, or have we “graduated” to recognizing the inevitable tough stuff of life as being confirmation?  Are they not confirmation that our loving and sovereign LORD—infinite in His understanding of us,  and committed to working all things together for our good—IS indeed working ALL things TOGETHER for His glory AND our good? “Have you not known?  Have you not heard?... His understanding IS unsearchable.”  (Isaiah 40:28, 29)
   
Dear saints, it’s imperative that we retrain/ renew how we think, in keeping with Romans 12:2, to let our first response to adversities and setbacks, real or imagined, be one of ‘Thank You, Lord, for what You’re accomplishing in me through this trial, these struggles!  I trust that You will be glorified, and that I will be further conformed to the image of Your Son through my initial and RIGHT response of praise and thanksgiving in the midst of them! Notwithstanding the struggle, LORD, I am open to Your will,  Your way, and Your purposes.”

Prayer:  Precious Savior, help us, Your kingdom people, to discipline our hearts/ minds to say when adversities strike, ‘By faith, LORD, I thank You in the midst of these circumstances, and I trust You to use it to deepen my capacity to rejoice in hope, persevere in tribulation, and remain devoted to prayer.’  In Jesus’ powerful name, amen!

(by Denise Diggs)