August 5, 2024

BE OPEN TO GOD’S PLAN

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE

“God knows how often I pray for you. Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart by spreading the Good News about his Son. One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity, God willing, to come at last to see you.

Romans 1:9-10 NLT

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TODAY’S THOUGHT

Have you noticed that God doesn’t always answer our prayers the way we think He should?

Paul was praying to visit the believers in Rome. If you read the first chapter of Romans, it is clear Paul wanted to come a preach the gospel to the city of Rome. Each time Paul tried to go to Rome there was a barrier that kept him from seeing that pray fulfilled. For years he had prayed to be able to go preach the gospel in Rome.

Then Paul does get to go to Rome. But it was not the way he thought it would be. Paul is sent to Rome as a prisoner. He is locked in a prison cell in a dungeon with only candles to light the small room in which he is chained to a Roman guard. He never gets to visit the Roman believers in their gatherings.

But in that Roman prison Paul writes a bunch of letters to the believers all over that part of the world. These letters become a part of our New Testament because they are full of doctrine and practical theology. Paul’s presence in Rome allowed those letters to be carried across the Mediterranean and read by thousands of believers. 

I was in Rome recently. It was amazing to think of Paul being in this place which was the center of world power during his lifetime. To recognize that Paul used his time in a prison cell to write letters that we still study today. The light of truth was shining brightly during incredible darkness.

God may not answer our prayers the way we thought He should. But if we trust Him with the outcome, we can see great things done in and through our lives. We can rejoice with the miracles that God will do in and through our lives. And we can see God receive glory. Man cannot stop the will and plans of God. If we are open to His plan, we will see His power and glory revealed.

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TODAY’S PRAYER

Holy Spirit help me to trust in Your way of doing things. Help me to lean on You because Your ways are better than mine.

“Scroll down to share what you feel God is saying based on today’s reading.”