God Is In Control, How God Uses Our Adversity, and The Character of Gossip


Subject: My Assurance: God Is In Control

And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. John 8:32 (NASB)

God has known you from the beginning of time. In fact, there has never been a time when He did not know and love you. Many find this difficult to believe. They think back to the wrong decisions they have made and wonder how God could love them. Others struggle with sin on a daily basis and think there is no way God will continue to care for them. But God does. He loves us in spite of our past and all we struggle with in the present.

God is not looking for any of us to perform up to a certain level. Instead, He longs for us to love Him with a full heart. When we do this, sin loses its attraction, and we seek to turn away from it. Love as strong as the love of God has the ability to touch even the hardest of hearts. While good performance may change the outward appearance, it can never change the core of a sinful heart. Only the grace and love of God can do this.

Because He is sovereign and in control of all things, we can bring our failures to the Lord and receive full and complete forgiveness. And because we know through His Word that He loves us with an eternal love, we can ask Him to remove the areas of sin in our lives that prove difficult and stubborn. As you pray, tell Him of your sincere love for Him, and ask Him to make a way of freedom and hope for you today.

Subject: How God Uses Our Adversity

7 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-to keep me from exalting myself!
8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.
9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Cor 12:7-10 (NASB)

Adversity is God's most effective tool for growing us in our faith. Did you know that? What puts us on our knees is what grows us up. The apostle Paul said that he had learned to be content with insults, distress, and persecutions. He had discovered that he experienced God's presence and power most strongly through troubles. (Philippians 4:11-13) God carefully selects where He wants to work in our lives and often uses affliction, His choicest tool, to accomplish His plan.

In intense times of difficulty, we may be hard pressed to understand what God is doing, but we can be certain He has a divine purpose in it. It does not matter what the source of the trouble is-whether adversity is from something we caused, from someone else's actions, straight from the Devil, or from God Himself, our Father has a purpose and a plan for it. (Romans
8:28) He is engineering all of our circumstances for His glory and our good. Do you believe that?

Adversity is an accurate barometer of our spiritual life. If we want to know the strength and quality of our faith, we need only look at how we handle our troubles. Ask yourself a few questions: How am I handling my circumstances? Am I showing more patience than I used to demonstrate or exhibiting greater self-control in my troubles? Am I more at peace and less in turmoil than before?

The Lord invites us to see adversity as He does. Will you commit today to cooperate with God and bring Him glory by advancing through adversity?

Subject: The Character of Gossip

5 So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!
6 And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.
7 For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race.
8 But no one, can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.
James 3:5-8 (NASB)

Gossip is not a popular subject, but it is a popular activity. Many people spend a great deal of time participating in idle talk about someone else, usually with the intention of injuring the individual in some way. Oftentimes believers are just as guilty of gossiping as unbelievers. But God insists that we view it differently.

Scripture lists the practice of gossip in a couple of odious categories. Paul places it in the midst of interrelated sins like deceit, malice, slander, and arrogance (Romans 1:29-30)-gossip is deceiving and defamatory, and it is accompanied by both cruelty and pride. These are all characteristics of "haters of God," according to the apostle. In 2 Timothy 3:1-3, we find another list of evils that Paul cautions Timothy to acknowledge; there, he places gossip right in the middle. And of course, the list everyone recognizes is the Ten Commandments, whose last decree is, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor" (Exodus 20:16).

Gossip does not fit who we are as God's children. Just as you can't have poison and pure water pouring from the same stream, you cannot have both God-honoring talk and gossip coming from a believer. When evil departs from our lips, it is indicative of what we harbor in our heart. But God is in the heart-cleaning business. If we falter-allowing gossip and its cohorts malice and deceit into our lives-we should pray as David did: "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer" (Psalm 19:14).