Sometimes NO is better

On a daily basis, I seem to think that I know what is best for me and exactly what I need to be happy.  Whether I think it's a relationship, more money, a better job, or whatever it is that has drawn my attention, I know exactly what is best for me.  The fact, though, is that I don't know what's best for me!  I think I do, but there is someone who knows better! 

What if we got everything we wanted?  Where would that leave us?  Just like a child, we don't always see the big picture!  We can see the here and now, and what WE think will make our lives better, but what happens  later on down the road?  As hard as it is for some of us to understand, sometimes God has to tell us no.  It's not that he doesn't want us to be happy, or that he is trying to punish us for something, he just knows what is best for us and as much as he wants to say yes, he knows that sometimes saying NO is going to be better for us in the long run.

The funny thing is that even after he says no, usually he's got a yes planned out that's even better than we could dream of.   Whether it happens a week, a month or even years later, God puts something or even someone in our lives and you just know he's beaming with joy watching his child get something better than they wanted.  As Rob Bell put it in his Nooma video called "Kickball", " God's idea of better is better."    We never realize it until it happens, but when it does we can't do much more than thank him for his infinite wisdom.  We never like hearing the word no, but when we look back at the no's in our life, I would be happy to bet that later on we got a yes that blew our minds!  I know it's happened to me more times than I can remember.

Matthew 7: 9-11 (NLT)

"You parents- if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead?  Of course not!  Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not!  If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him."

What's your resolution?

Every year on December 31st, millions of people celebrate the arrival of a new year by going out on the town, heading to friends or families houses or by just staying in with loved ones.  People celebrate in many different ways and have their own traditions, but there is one thing that is the same no matter who you are! All around the world, people make resolutions to get in shape, stop smoking, or whatever else they deem as a change that needs to be made.  As I was thinking about the resolutions I would be making for myself, a thought came into my head.  If there are things in our lives that we don't like or think need changing, why do we wait until the new year to change them.

Every day we should be changing!!  Every day we should be looking at our lives and how we live them and changing not to better ourselves, not to make others happy, but to glorify the God that gives us each and every breath that we take.  As Christians, we have been issued a death sentence!  This a death sentence from the evil and sin of the world.  In 1st Peter 2:24(Phi), it says:  And he personally bore our sins in his own body on the cross, so that we might be dead to sin and be alive to all that is good. 

Jesus died on the cross so that we could be saved from the sins of this world.  He paid the ultimate sacrifice so we wouldn't have to.  So this year, while your trying to follow a new years resolution, I will challenge you like I am challenging myself!   Make a resolution to die daily to your sins.  This year... accept your death sentence!