Everyday Gospel: A Daily Devotional Connecting Scripture to All of LifeSample

Embedded in things that are unexpected and hard are the wisdom and grace of our sovereign Savior.

I have to admit that I entered ministry quite full of myself. I had done well in seminary, graduating with honors and winning several academic prizes. I was ready to take on the world for the gospel. What I thought was confidence in God’s word and the power of the gospel was really pride and self-reliance. Luella and I left seminary, connected with a good church, and began to work with a ministry that provided housing and a place to investigate Christianity. This was our first place of ministry. As a young married couple, we had several young men living with us. Some were fresh out of prison, others were with us simply because they had lost their way. This was not the congregation I thought I would have after all my training. None of our guys were interested in asking the questions that I felt so totally prepared to answer.

One evening one man, who had no education beyond fifth grade, said to me, “Paul, if you don’t quit talking the lawyer talk to me, I’m gonna quit talking to you.” Lawyer talk meant using big, esoteric words. That evening I sat on the edge of my bed and said to my Lord, “Why would you put me here to minister to these guys? I have no idea how to get through to them. I don’t understand them, and I don’t know how to help them see what they truly need.” I didn’t understand that God had put me in this place with these particular people not just for them, but for me. He was bringing me to the end of myself. He was working to replace my pride and fear and discouragement with trust in him. I was where I was because of God’s wisdom and grace.

This is why God chose to plant Israel between the Red Sea and the approaching Egyptian army (Ex. 14). The children of Israel were on a short route to the land of the Philistines, but God in wisdom and grace knew that his children were not ready for the battles they would encounter there. God knew they might panic and run back to the bondage of Egypt. So, God led them to the shores of the Red Sea. Contrary to how it might have appeared to them (and to us), God was not punishing or abandoning his people, but he was acting with the grace of a wise and loving Father. He would demonstrate his power and glory by parting those sea waters, providing both deliverance for Israel and defeat of Egypt. His plan for his people was to defeat both pride and fear and instill in them an unshakable confidence in their Redeemer God. No hard thing for the people of God is outside of his wise and gracious rule.

God takes us to hard places not to do things to us, but to do things for and in us. Today, be thankful that these hard moments, in his hands, are tools of rescuing and renewing grace.

For further study and encouragement: John 15:1–11