Living for God: Devotions From Time of GraceSample

Less bitter, more content

Do you ever catch yourself starting sentences with the phrase “Just my luck”? Do you see yourself as doomed? Are you a brooder over past failures? Do critical comments from other people linger long in your memory? Do you feel cheated in life? Are you surrounded by other people whose lives are carefree and easy?

The extract from all that stew is a bitter bile that sits in your stomach and wells up your throat. If you are looking for and expecting disappointments and brokenness and failure in your life, you will find them every time. The amount simply depends on the time you spend looking. In our broken and sinful world, there is plenty everywhere. If you approach life with that mind-set, however, you will make yourself miserable and probably others too. “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many” (Hebrews 12:15).

If, on the other hand you go about looking for gifts from God, boosts and treats and blessings, you will find them too. If you look for kind and decent people, daily guidance from the Word, and assurance of your worth and value to God, you will find that too. If you inventory your marvelous assets from heaven more than obsess over what you don’t have, you will experience a contented heart.

You will also have more friends.