Today Counts: Guidelines For A Meaningful LifeSample

When the Arm of Flesh Fails You

Winning in life is not always a matter of gritting your teeth and trouncing your opposition. At times it is a matter of taking one more step by faith, realizing that the whole situation is beyond your control and that, if God is willing, He can reverse almost certain failure. Think of Daniel in the lion’s den. If he thought, “Look what I got myself into; now how do I get myself out of here?” there is no record of it. Or ponder Esther, a Jewish girl, whose uncle had engineered her into appealing for the lives of the Jews in Babylon. “If I perish, I perish,” she cried, pushed forward and saved the lives of thousands.

God honors the determined spirit that presses on, but then all the determination and courage in the world aren’t enough to overcome some obstacles and situations. That’s when God makes the difference.

That phrase “but God” speaks of His reversing a situation, turning it around, changing everything. When Paul was on his second missionary journey, his friend Epaphroditus fell sick unto death. “Indeed,” says Paul, “he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow” (Philippians 2:27). Underline these words but God in your Bible.

Is there anything too hard for God to do? Not if you believe what the Bible says. At the end of what you can do, there is the strong hand of the God.