When I took my lunch break yesterday, I accidentally turned on "wheel of fortune". The show was a special one with a Chicago theme, but I noticed the stars: Pat Sajak looked the same, but Vanna White looked quite different to me. Isn't it funny how some people change quickly, while others seem to stay the same for a long, long time. This picture of a birthday cake caused me to think about life and ask the question: Are our lives really like this cake; do we really just get "pot luck"? Then I remembered a couple passages from the Bible that set me straight in a hurry.Prov 20:24 (WEB)
24) A man’s steps are from Yahweh; how then can man understand his way?
Rom 8:28-39 (WEB)
28) We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
29) For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
30) Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified.
31) What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32) He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?
33) Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies.
34) Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
35) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36) Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37) No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38) For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39) nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God has always and will always work in the lives of us all. Those who do their best to follow him obviously get special attention. I know this because of the effort God made in providing a "new covenant" through Jesus; a new way to God. We may seem to have a "pot luck" life and the cake is cute and all, but make no mistake, God is there and working through your life to fulfill his will. We all enjoy the pleasant aspects of life, but even those of lesser enjoyment or unhappiness can be wonderful if we understand that God can use even those things. So, even "lose a turn" and "bankrupt" can be a blessing. I know this is true, but I still would feel a little strange if someone gave me a piece of either one of them on my birthday.