ALL FOR A PURPOSE

Romans 8:28 says this:

"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."

Once this truth is firmly fixed in our hearts and we trust God to guide us in His wisdom, we will begin to see how the details of our lives are fitting into a specific plan that only a sovereign God could have designed. Even though we may not yet understand exactly what that plan is.

Yet along the way some circumstances don't make sense and we wonder, "Just how exactly does this fit into the big picture?" We don't always have the privilege of discovering the purpose of these events and we simply have to walk by faith, knowing that God will use them in some way. But sometimes a long while afterwards we can look back and see in reflection at least part of the reason why certain things happened in our lives.

Today I had two of those moments. The first came when I was reading email responses to my latest ministry update, and a special friend wrote these words to me:

"Remember once when you and I were talking,

and you said that you wished you had met the right man so that you could be married and have children because you love children so much? God always has a better plan,

better because He finds a way for Himself to be glorified and as a result we receive blessings too. 

Now you will have MANY children to love and care for, not just the one or two

that you could have naturally."

I still pray and believe that God has someone special for me someday, but what my friend shared is true. Had I been involved in a relationship, or perhaps married with a family, I probably would not be where I am today, preparing for full-time ministry to needy children in a country halfway around the world from where I was born. God knew that and He lovingly and carefully kept me for a special purpose that I could never have dreamed of and that now fills me with an inexplicable joy and hope!

The other moment came as I was doing my supper dishes. I have discovered that in Ukraine, things are done a little differently than what I'm used to -- here we use a sponge with a little bit of dish soap and some running water to wash the dishes. We don't fill up a sink with water, and there's no second sink to rinse in. And I have to wash up the dishes after each meal, because of the size of the kitchen and the relatively few dishes we have. Once the dishes are washed, they are put away in the cupboard - still wet - and left to air-dry. (I dry them sometimes anyway, because I prefer to do that.) Well, it occurred to me that God had prepared me for even this interesting change...

Back in 2005 when I moved to Cambridge, Ontario, I shared a 3-bedroom apartment with 2 other young women. I'm once again sharing an apartment with 2 other women, but that's not where the comparison stops. In that apartment in Cambridge, I quickly found out that my room-mates expected me to wash up my dishes and put them away after each time I used them, rather than letting them pile up on the counter or in the sink. At first that was a bone of contention with me because I was used to doing dishes only once a day. But it was her home, and I realized that I needed to accommodate her wishes.

I did not carry on that tradition over the past 5 years, but learning to do dishes in this way again has been a relatively easy adjustment -- in part because I had already developed the skill years ago. I used to think that was just for that time, but I realized today that even that living experience was preparation for what I would need to do 7 years down the road in another country! (Interestingly, back in 2005 I lived with a young woman named Tanya, and again, one of my apartment-mates is named Tanya!)

Psalm 139:16 says this:

"All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

None of these circumstances are a surprise to God, and let me tell you...it is a pure delight to be able to look back and realize how God has lovingly and carefully arranged the details of my life that most of the time I would deem inconsequential. Not only is nothing hidden from His sight, but He has planned it all before I was even born -- now that's amazing!

I hope this encourages you today that ALL that happens in your life is FOR A PURPOSE. Embrace it with faith and hope, looking to the Lord God, and you will be able to rejoice and give thanks "in everything."