26 January 2012

Living With God's Agenda

Jerry Bridges has some insightful thoughts on handling our careers that I have found to be rich, Biblical reminders as I go about my daily duties at work. Allow me to share a few from his book, Trusting God. And if you don't have this book yet, I urge you to pick up a copy. It is incredibly helpful for every Christian, young and old.

Our careers and destinies are in His hands not the hands of bosses, commanding officers, professors, coaches, and all other people who, humanly speaking, are in a position to affect our futures. No one can harm you or jeopardize your future apart from the sovereign will of God. Moreover, God is able to and will grant you favor in the eyes of people who are in a position to do you good. You can entrust your future to God. We should then look to God in prayer in all those situations where some aspect of our futures lies in the hands of another individual.

...Confidence in God's sovereignty in the lives of people should also keep us from becoming resentful and bitter when we are treated unjustly or maliciously by others.

...Now God sometimes allows people to treat us unjustly. Sometimes He even allows their actions to seriously affect our careers or our futures viewed on a human plane. But God never allows people to make decisions about us that undermine His plan for us. God is for us, we are His children, He delights in us (see Zephaniah 3:17). And the Scripture says, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). We can put this down as a bedrock truth: God will never allow any action against you that is not in accord with His will for you. And His will is always directed to our good. Why then do we suffer such disappointment when the hoped for favor that we needed from another person doesn't materialize?


...Why then do we suffer such disappointment when the hoped for favor that we needed from another person doesn't materialize? ...Is it not because it is our plans that have been dashed, or our pride that has been wounded? ...if we want to live less stressful lives, we must learn to live with a single agenda: God's agenda. He pointed out that we tend to live under two agendas, ours and God's, and that the tension between them sets up stress.


Gerald Bridges;Jerry Bridges. Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts (pp. 74-75). Kindle Edition.

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