The Bigger Picture

In Philippians 1, things were not going well for the apostle Paul. He was in jail for preaching the gospel and had other jealous preachers attacking him, too! Not a very encouraging place to be.

Paul quickly learned that he had no control over his circumstances, BUT he did have control over how he responded to his circumstances. So how did Paul respond? Did he get angry? Bitter?

No. Paul said in (v.12), “But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;”

In other words, Paul realized that God was using his circumstances as a means of getting the gospel into places it might not otherwise go. Because of his arrest (v.13) says that the gospel went into the palace and “in all other places.”

What a lesson we can learn from this. God may allow something to happen TO you so that He can work THROUGH you!

Our entire life should be about letting God use us to further the gospel. So when circumstances take a turn for the worse take a moment to pray, “LORD, in what way can you use this in my life to help get the gospel to someone who needs to hear it?”

All of the sudden a wonderful thing will happen…. you will begin to see your circumstances in a different light because you will see the bigger picture. You will begin to see your part in God’s plan to reach the world. How awesome is that?

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