But I thought God wanted me to be happy!

Today's Precious Prodigal Post is at = http://bit.ly/1vMAjTM But I thought God wanted me to be happy! #buildingcharacter Like what you see? Please "Like" and "Share" us with your FaceBook friends!

Romans 8:29 “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son”

How many times have you heard hurting people quote Romans 8:28? While it’s true that God is going to work things out for “good,” that “good” is according to His purpose. And God’s purpose isn’t the same as ours. You see, God’s purpose is that we be “conformed to the image of His Son.” (Rom 8:29)

That’s how “all things work together for good…” God uses them to reveal and then chip away those parts of us that are not like Christ. And if you’re anything like me, you have plenty of those and to spare!

When we had custody of our two grandkids, I was full of anger and resentment. While I was certainly angry at a lot of people, I was also angry at God. My kids had broken my heart, my ex-husband had walked away, and I had been disappointed in “Christian” people. Why had God let those things happen to me?

A dear Christian friend gently (gently?) told me I had the worst attitude of anyone she knew. She told me that protecting those kids was only part of God’s purpose in bringing them to live with us. God was also using those circumstances to do a work in my husband’s life…and in mine. And she was right.

But, wait! Haven’t I been writing for several days about having joy regardless of your circumstances? Indeed I have. However, joy isn’t to be confused with happiness. Taking a long, hard look at ourselves to see our part in every situation isn’t going to make us “happy.”

Allowing God to hold up a mirror so we can see ourselves clearly isn’t going to have us jumping up shouting, “Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!” And once we see what God needs to change in us, letting Him begin to chip away at those faults isn’t likely to make us happy either.

Husbands and wives walk out on a marriage because they’re not “happy.” Kids devastate their family and justify it by saying they “deserve to be happy.” Parents abandon their kids because they are pursuing their “own happiness.” But are we really any different? We look at our circumstances and think God has abandoned us. Does He not care that we are so unhappy?

While being “happy” might be more comfortable, God doesn’t care one whit about our comfort. He cares about our character. And character isn’t built in the good times; it is developed and refined in the fires of adversity. God hasn’t abandoned you and me; He is vitally interested in us. And while He accepts us just as we are, He loves us too much to let us stay that way.

So we can bang our sippy cup on our high chair and pitch a hissy fit because we’re not happy. Or we can accept our circumstances, trusting that God is using them to make us into the image of His own dear Son. What we choose will determine whether, in spite of our circumstances, we have joy.

Challenge for Today: What might happen if we, just for today, believed that God knows what He’s doing in our lives?