An Alaskan advocacy group, Standing Together Against Rape, recently sponsored a lottery to raise needed funds for their programs. The winner came forward to claim his half-million dollar prize this past Saturday. It just so happens he is a twice convicted sex offender! "It's not how we had envisioned the story going," Nancy Haag, the group's executive director, told CNN Radio.Ouch! How ironic is that! A lottery designed to help victims of sexual abuse is won by a man guilty of sex crimes! But that is how life works sometimes. We have great visions of this or that ... and something else - often unforeseen and often unwelcome - arrives instead! So what should we do at these times? The very first thing we must guard our hearts against is anger toward God. Yet this is often how we respond. We shake our fists toward heaven and shout, "God, how could YOU let this happen to ME?" This response of Godward anger when we encounter tough times is so ingrained in our sinful nature, it is often a "knee-jerk" reaction. Therefore, we MUST be on the alert for it ... and when we feel anger toward God raising its ugly head in our hearts - we must kill it! One way to do this is to remind ourselves 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).
So when life takes a turn that makes you mad - deal with it and remind yourself that even in these trying circumstances, God is at work for your good and HIS glory!
Thanks for stopping by . . .
pj
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