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Used For His Glory

            Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear. (Philippians 1:12-14)

There’s a story about a man to whom a number of bad things happened, and each time, his neighbors commiserated with him. How terrible that this should happen. I don’t remember all the details, but one of the calamities was that his son broke his leg. And as a result (as I recall) when the army showed up, they didn’t take the son away as a soldier.

There are probably many versions of this story out there. You probably have yours. It was terrible when each of my parents died, but each time, I have grown stronger as a person. When my position at the courthouse was eliminated, it was terrible, but I learned I could survive losing a job.

I’m tempted to say that I have no examples of things happening to that have advanced the gospel or the Kingdom. I certainly haven’t been someone that others would suggest for Sainthood in the Catholic church (even if I were Catholic.) At least, not that I noticed. And that’s a good thing. My ego is overblown enough without thinking myself a champion.

But look at what happened with Jesus and Paul. Read Hebrews 11. Lots of bad stuff has happened to people, and it came together for the glory of God, even if they didn’t get what they wanted. That means that I don’t have the wisdom, or the perspective to proclaim myself a failure, no matter how tempting it might be. Things I don’t notice or that I think of little value may be huge in God’s economy. Things I think are necessary for spiritual “greatness” might be nothing from God’s point of view. But maybe, just maybe, God does and will use me for His glory, whether I notice or not.

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