It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes. —Psalm 119:71

Did you know that everything you have experienced up to this point in your life can be used for good? That isn’t to say you haven’t experienced hardship. That isn’t to say bad things haven’t happened to you. But it is to say that God can work them out for good.

That includes the experiences of your childhood, whether good or bad. That includes your parents, whoever they may be. That includes your education, your present employment, or your lack of it. He will work all things together for good.

I went through hardship as a kid. I came from a home that was broken many, many times over, a home of alcoholism. I wouldn’t wish my childhood on anyone. But God used it to make me the person that I am.

In the same way, God has used what you have gone through to make you the person that you are. So let it be worked together for good, and accept God’s promise to you: “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). The phrase work together also could be translated “working together.” In other words, it isn’t over yet!

Maybe you are going through a process right now in which God is working things together for good. You don’t see it yet. But you are a work in progress. Be patient. You have God’s word on it: He will work all things together for good to those who love Him and are the called according to His purpose. God is ultimately working all things for good — not just the good things, but all things.

Today’s devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013

God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. —James 1:12

Not long ago, I had a conversation with two people after church.

One was in a wheelchair with a severe disability, and the other was speaking at length. I listened to her for a while, and then I turned to the woman in the wheelchair and said, “Well, how are you doing?”

“I am doing fine,” she told me.

But then her friend said that she actually had just had two brain surgeries to remove cancer, and they were successful.

I looked at this young woman with her disability, someone who had just come through such a difficult time, and I thought, And where is she now? She is at church.

I think of all of the excuses people come up with as to why they can’t make it to church. They have a cold, or it takes too long to get into the parking lot, and so forth. Yet here was this young woman who, despite her severe disability and recent surgeries, was at church, praising God and saying she is doing fine. I was touched by her example.

So I said to her, “You know, the Bible promises a special blessing and crown to those who have suffered in this life. I admire your faith. You are an inspiration to me.”

James 1:12 says, “God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him” (NLT). It all will be made up to us in the life to come. Have you lost something to follow Jesus? Whatever losses you may have incurred for following Christ will be more than made up to you.

Make no mistake about it: Our life on earth isn’t all there is. There will be rewards for our faithfulness to God.

Today’s devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013

He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. —Job 23:10

God specializes in putting us in situations where only He can delivers us. That way, we can’t “thank our lucky stars” or compliment ourselves on our own cleverness or resourcefulness. Rather, we must say, “Only God could have done this.” The Lord wants to receive the glory for what He does. And He clearly says in Scripture that He will not give His glory to another (see Isaiah 42:8).

It reminds us of a man who knew something about suffering, whose very name, in fact, is synonymous with the word. I am speaking, of course, of Job. Here was a man who lost his children, his home, and everything he owned, including his health.

Job had a lot of questions, the same questions that many of us have. He said, “Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come to His seat! I would present my case before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words which He would answer me, and understand what He would say to me” (Job 23:3-5).

Job honestly admitted what he was struggling with. Then he added what would become a classic statement of faith: “But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). Job was saying, “I don’t know what’s is going on. I don’t know why God has allowed these things to happen. But I know this: when I am tested, I will come forth as gold.” That was God’s objective for Job. And it’s His objective for you, too.

Today’s devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. —Matthew 23:12

A fisherman who caught crabs would keep them in a bucket without a lid. Someone noticed this and asked him, “Don’t you have to keep a lid on that bucket?”

He said, “No, they never get out.”

“Why? Because they can’t get out?”

“No,” he said. “When one crab tries to go over the side, the others reach up and pull him back down again.”

That is just like human beings as well. As one person begins to climb, others are thinking, How dare you succeed? How dare you do better than me? How dare you get that promotion? How dare you get that attention? How dare you do well when I’m not doing just as well? You get back down here with me!

It has been said that envy shoots at another and wounds itself. This is so true. Envy can eat us up inside. We need to recognize it as sin and repent of it. We may try and rationalize our jealousy, but we need to realize it is wrong and ask God to forgive us. God wants us to put the needs of others above our own, love one another, and care for one another. This is so very important.

Instead of worrying about what other people have, let’s be thankful we are even drawing breath in our lungs. It is a gift from God. And if God lifts you to an exalted position, then that is His grace. If He lifts up someone else, that also is His grace. None of us deserve it; it is all the grace of God. Just be faithful to what God has called you to do.

Today’s devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013

If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it. —Genesis 4:7

Years ago, my son Christopher was lying out in the sun at our house when he woke up to find a huge gopher snake, coiled up and hissing at him, poised to strike. It must have been six or seven feet long. Terrified, he ran into the house and shut the door behind him.

That is a picture of how sin can be: ready to strike. It is at the door — for all of us. It is potentially there at all times, and for some of us, it has already slithered across the threshold.

When Cain saw that the Lord accepted Abel’s offering, but not his, he was angry. So God gave him a warning. He essentially told Cain what was going to happen to him if he didn’t get himself under control: “Sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it” (Genesis 4:7). Another way to translate it would be, “Sin is crouching at the door like a beast.” What a vivid picture that is of sin crouching, ready to pounce like a wild animal.

So the next time sin comes knocking at your door, you might say, “Lord, would You mind getting that? I’m going to stand in Your strength. I’m going to trust in You. You are the only one who can give me the strength to overpower sin.” If we will master sin, then we must first be mastered by Him who mastered it.

Tragically, Cain did not allow himself to be mastered by God but instead became enslaved by the Devil.

Today’s devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013

There is one who scatters, yet increases more; and there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty. —Proverbs 11:24

A mother who wanted to teach her daughter the joy of giving gave her both a quarter and a dollar to take to church one Sunday morning. She told her daughter that she could put in either one; the choice was hers. As they were leaving church, the mother asked her daughter what she ended up giving to the Lord.

The little girl replied, “I was going to give the dollar, but just before the offering, the man in the pulpit said we should be cheerful givers. I knew I would be a lot more cheerful if I just gave the quarter.”

That is how a lot of us are. We think, I am not cheerful about giving, so I suppose I had better keep it for myself. But we need to understand that God wants to change our hearts. We need to discover the joy of giving. And if we haven’t yet discovered it, then we need to ask God to change our hearts because giving is a blessing. We can experience joy in it.

Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). It is hard for children to wrap their minds around that truth. But as we get older, and especially if we become parents, we discover the joy of giving. We actually find more pleasure in giving than in receiving. The word Jesus used for blessed is a word that could be translated “happy”. In other words, the Bible is saying that if you want to be a happy person, then be a generous person. If you want to be a happy person, then be a giving person.

Today’s devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013

He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. —Hebrews 11:25

A Christian father who was terminally ill called his three sons to his bedside. To his two sons who were believers, he said, “Good-bye, my sons. I will see you in the morning.” Turning to his third son, he simply and sadly said, “Good-bye, my son.”

The young man was deeply disturbed. He said, “Father, why is it you said to my brothers,

‘I will see you in the morning,’ and you only said to me, ‘Good-bye, my son’? Why didn’t you say you would see me in the morning, too?”

His father replied, “Son, you have never asked Jesus Christ into your heart to be your Savior and Lord. And that is what breaks my heart the most. I will never see you again.” That son began to ask his father how he could be saved, how he could see his father again. His father told him how. And so he prayed and received Christ into his life. Then his father said, “Now our family will be together in eternity.”

That can happen for everyone who has put their faith in Christ. It will be a great reunion one day in the future. But what does the unbeliever have to look forward to? Judgment after death and a miserable, empty life on earth. There might be some fun in sin — for a while. But payday comes. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

If you do not commit your life to Christ, ultimately you will look back on your life and realize that you wasted it. But don’t wait until the end of your life to figure that out. Figure it out now.

Today’s devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013