Ever read this? Romans 8:28
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are called according to His purpose.”
OK, I’m not a Biblical scholar, nor do I claim to understand exactly what this verse in the Gospel means. I do know that I sometimes get frustrated with God and wonder if he is listening to my prayers.
When bad things happen, do you get upset and frustrated like me? I’m working hard and hard work is supposed to pay off right? Then when something blows up, “Augh!” It feels like two steps forward and three steps back.
When you experience a setback do you, like me, get frustrated and think, “How can this possibly be for my good!” What if it was for your good? Sometimes we forget to look back later on and see how those “seemingly backward steps were needed to move forward.”
Here is an example that happened in my life this week. I’m currently in the middle of moving my entire business over to a new platform. I’ve been building my business-building since 1998. I knew this migration would include much frustration. I had to learn this new platform, update lots of content, and rethink how I did things.
I had just finished setting up all of the automation on the new platform to deliver my free content. It was several weeks of work. Much needed to be upgraded and adjusted. I spent one-on-one time on the phone with the help desk to make sure I did it right. I finally re-launched all of my programs! I was excited! Hundreds of people had signed up right away. Sweet!
Then a few days ago, one of the people who signed up told me they were not getting the content. I looked and saw that even though I tested everything with my team they were not getting the second lesson or anything after that either. What? I followed directions. I even got help. What do you mean it was not working? I researched and found out most of the people were not getting the content. I immediately contacted the help desk again. They showed me what I set up incorrectly. Augh! But that is what they showed me in the one-on-one call.
The fix was simple, but now we had to go back and manually fix each individual of the hundreds that had registered. I was a bit frustrated, to say the least. Regine, my office manager, helped me and within a few hours with total focus, we had people back on track. There were a few hours I could have used preparing for two upcoming events.
I thought about this Bible passage. How could this be for my good or even His good? After thinking about it for a while, it came clear to me. Yes, I did things correctly and even got help. Yes, it was not cool I got some misinformation. Yes, it was frustrating for me because I allowed it to frustrate me!
One of the upcoming events was sponsoring the upcoming Toastmasters International Convention. This is a big investment of time, energy, and effort. It was only a week away. One of my goals for sponsoring the event is to get thousands of people to sign up and get this same automated content. When I considered that, it was a blessing of timing. Thank God it happened when it did! I see it now. I’m glad now we discovered the error, first for helping the people who had signed up and also for the people who were about to sign up. Fixing a couple hundred people’s requests manually is much different from having to fix thousands manually. Yikes! Though at the moment it seemed like it couldn’t possibly be for my good, turns out it was for sure!
By the way, some remember the verse as saying for “my good”, but that’s not what it says. The verse says to those who love God and for who are called to His purpose. His purpose, not mine. OK, I also want to be clear, I know this example is about me and my business, not my soul. Look, I know this is just my plan, not necessarily God’s plan.
I’m just asking you to consider when things don’t seem to be going your way, “What if this frustration is exactly what I needed to get where I wanted to go or where God wanted me to go.” We sometimes pray for things and don’t realize the path God needs to take us on to get us to what we asked for.
Frustrated? Don’t judge too soon. What if it was for your good or God’s?
(Reminder, this is just a journal of my mistakes, experiences, and thoughts along with my journey to having a closer relationship with God. I do not claim to be an authority on the subject. If you want to know The Way, read The Bible.)
What church do I attend? Verve Church in Las Vegas
http://vivalaverve.org
P.S. Thank you, especially, for grace.
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https://darrenlacroix.com/category/godblog/
