Living on Purpose: With God as Your CenterExemple

Day 2 | God Has a Good Plan That Always Succeeds Scott Dudley, pastor of Bellevue Presbyterian Church in Seattle said, “I have read the last page of the last chapter of Scripture. Spoiler alert: Jesus wins!” History concludes with God’s resounding triumph over death and Satan and evil: “The Kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). Read that again. Now listen to Handel’s musical treatment of this passage in The Messiah with the volume cranked up. No more child trafficking. No more disease. No more corruption. No more broken relationships. No more heartache. Jesus wins. Jesus wins . “That’s all well and good,” you might say. “But what about now? Sure, everything will be okay in heaven. But where is God’s good plan in the midst of my struggles now ?” The difficulties you face are real and often very painful. It’s not about closing our eyes or putting our heads in the sand. Trusting that God’s purposes will prevail doesn’t mean that we pretend things aren’t hard. In Romans 8:31-39, Paul tells us that trust gives us hope that God can bring something beautiful and redemptive out of the heartache. As Dallas Willard, American philosopher and Christian author, wrote, “Nothing irredeemable has happened to us or can happen to us on our way to our destiny in God’s full world.” For Reflection Take a few minutes to read of Joseph’s life in Genesis 37 and Genesis 39-47. How do you see God’s purposes prevailing in Joseph’s story? What parallels do you see between Joseph and your own situation?