GOD IS PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER

FRIDAY JULY 17

Our light affliction...is working for us.” 2Co 4:17 NKJV

Without God’s Word, most of our experiences in life make no sense whatsoever. With it, we can decipher our experiences. Few things are more comforting or more exhil- arating than knowing that God is the One putting together the jigsaw puzzle of your life. It was a London cartographer, John Spilsbury, who is credited with commercializing jigsaw puzzles around1760. During the Great Depression, they were popularized in America as a cheap form of entertainment. Puzzles come in all shapes and sizes, including the latest and greatest—3D spherical jigsaws. But the method of assembly has not changed. It requires the fitting together of oddly shaped, interlocking pieces. The key is the picture on top of the box. Without it, you’re lost. And that’s why many of us feel helpless and hopeless at times—because the pieces of our lives don’t seem to fit together, and we can’t see God’s vision for the whole. Few have suffered more than the apostle Paul, yet he wrote: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2Co 4:16-18 NKJV). Yes, bad things do happen to good people. But God has promised to recycle it, redeem it, and use it for our good and His glory.