Today's Devotional

May 25, 2005

Subject:  Why They Left

1John 2:19 - "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us."

This verse is really a tough one to deal with because there are so many implications that one can make.  However, the one point to clearly understand is that when we are in Christ, God determines who He brings in and out of our lives.  That means people that we grew to love as well as people we didn't really care much about are all part of His divine plan for us, even in their leaving.  

At my going away luncheon a couple of weeks ago, most of the people there were amazed to hear my goodbye speech where I talked positively about one of my bosses.  He is a terror to most everyone in the office, but a closer and deeper look only reveals his real issues are with life and not with the people upon who he vents his frustration.  I could, however, see his purpose in my life for this season.  Okay, but I'm glad that season is coming to an end.  

Many times relationships are totally destroyed because God wants to show us something about the condition of man, i.e. that man is mutable, changing like the wind.  He can strive with you today and be gone tomorrow.  People leave marriages, churches they've joined and sometimes their jobs because God is at work, "making manifest" that they were "not all of us." 

Don't spend your life wondering why.  The point today is to realize that you have security in Christ that no person can give you.  If Christ is first in your life, as Matthew 6:33 exhorts, when relationships end it's because God wanted to end it.  That's why they left. 

Carlen