To My Father's Glory

May 17

Things happen. Sometimes they are wonderful things that rejoice the heart of the individual who is the recipient of the good that accrues from them. Sometimes they are burdens that grieve to the very core of his being the one who must endure them. As the Word says, “The rain falls on the just and on the unjust; the sun shines on the just and on the unjust” Matthew 5:45.

Life on Planet Earth is sometimes a roller-coaster ride; moving from blessing to burden to blessing again more swiftly than the emotions have opportunity to adjust! So, how do we adjust? How do we enjoy the blessings that often occur in concert with the storms? The key to handling the ups and downs in life is in keeping our focus aright.

If we are oriented around ourselves—our abilities to deal with problems or to handle great blessings—we won’t always get it right. Our efforts will be ‘hit and miss’ at best. If we focus on the circumstances, they will require us to zig and zag as they fluctuate. This constant shifting of gears to account for changing events will challenge our emotions and our efforts to the core.

But if we keep our eyes upon Jesus in the good times and in the bad, if we allow Him to be our Source, if we make Him the object of our praise when things are going right and if we trust Him to be our Help when things have gone awry, then, as He says in John 15:8, “This (all things) will be to My Father’s glory…” toward the end that the children of the Holy One, “…bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples.”