Today's Devotional
February 11, 2003
Subject: It's Not What You Lost...
Philippians 3:8 - "Yea doubtless, and I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for
whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung,
that I may win Christ."
Rudyard Kipling stated in his famous poem If, "If you can heap
all your winnings on one turn of pitch and toss, and lose and start again
at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss..." This was
the challenge I felt immediately on last month when I first realized that
I had lost my hard drive and all of the data that it contained; family pictures,
important email messages, future and past devotionals, not to mention music
files that I had created for future use. For the next couple of weeks after
that, as you might recall, I was simply reeling about how much I needed that
hard drive. Then like any loss, God begins to show you how He ministers
in the middle of loss.
I had to replace the hard drive immediately to get my computer back up and
running and as it turns out, I got a great deal on a larger hard drive and
soon realized that my previous hard drive had so much clutter, that it terribly
slowed many computer functions, including my access to the internet. I still
miss that hard drive and one day hope to get my data back, but for now, my
load has been lightened by getting rid of a lot of junk that was weighing
down my computer.
Isn't that what God wants to do in our lives. Some things are okay for us
to have, but they simply keep us from performing to our optimal ability.
God wants us to press toward the mark for the prize and in order to do that,
He often has to lighten our load and so we sometimes experience loss. If
we can understand that the loss is not merely to make us sorrowful, but to
make us ready and more fit for God's use, then we can rejoice in these situations.
Remember, it's not just what you lose, but what you gain in the process
of the loss.
Let's pray for those experiencing loss of all types today.
Carlen
