Things Can Change
Today’s devotional was written by my son, Clark Wrather, who is the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Broken Bow, Oklahoma. The Scripture and title have been added.
OU was ahead of Texas Tech for most of the game. They maintained their lead until the game was almost over, but Tech did finally take the lead. There was only four seconds left in the game and OU was down by two points. The Sooners had possession of the basketball, but they had to travel the length of the court and make the basket under pressure to send the game into overtime. They had only four seconds to work a miracle.
I just knew my team was going to lose. I had lost my faith in them after their tragic loss to…*Sniff*…the osu cowboys. I just knew that OU was going to lose to a Texas team, which is actually worse than losing to osu. I did not believe that there was any way that the Sooners would end up with a victory.
I could not have been more wrong. The Sooners moved the ball quickly down the court and hit a jumper right before the buzzer to send the game into overtime. OU took care of business during overtime and actually won the game. (We now know that somehow there was an extra 1.7 seconds added in to those final seconds barely giving OU the time needed to make the basket to send the game into overtime. It has not yet been decided as to how the 1.7 seconds came into being.)
In life, things are not usually as bad as they seem. Sometimes we believe that there is nothing that can be done to change our bad situation. Or we think that our lives will never get better.
My friend, you never know what may happen next. Things may change for the better in a moment’s notice. If you have believed in Jesus Christ, God cares about you and your life and your situation. When you believed, you became one of God’s special sons or daughters. God does care about you and when He uses His mighty power on your behalf, things can change in the blink of an eye. There is always hope if you know the Lord.
(Thinking of some Biblical examples of God intervening and doing the impossible in the lives of people I thought of the following – there are many more. The next time you are facing an impossible situation read through these passages of Scripture.
– Joseph sold into slavery and unfairly put into prison. Genesis 37 -50.
– Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. Exodus 14.
– The Giant Goliath challenging the Israelites. 1 Samuel 17.
– The Jews during the time of Esther having a death sentence upon them. The
Book of Esther.
– Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. Daniel 3.
– Daniel protected from the lions while in the their den. Daniel 6.
– Jesus bringing Lazarus back to life. John 11
– The apostles delivered from prison by an angel. Acts 5:17-20.)
(Before you give up – remember that God is still God and He has the power to change things.)