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Crooked Paths (Ecclesiastes 7:13-14)


Scripture of the Day: Ecclesiastes 7:13-14a

13Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked? 14When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider God has made the one as well as the other.

Have you ever wished that God operated by the popular line, “The shortest distance between two points is a straight line?” Oh…how I have! But God is anything but boring and he has made our lives full of twists and turns, good times and bad. Sometimes we have bumps in our daily walk we didn’t foresee. It is when what we thought was easy becomes hard for no apparent reason that God may be at work in our lives. As the verse points out “Who can straighten what he has made crooked?” I think it is when we try to straighten out a road that wasn't meant to be straightened that we feel most frustrated - both with ourselves and with God. This is for two reasons. 1) we obviously won't be able to straighten it but will spend endless energy try to; and 2) we have not accepted that God has us where we are supposed to be. 

So remember the second part of that verse - God made the good times and the bad. Although it may be easier to be happier in the good times, it is still possible to praise God in the bad times. And that is what we must do.

I hope that when the trials are over (or perhaps not over, but just accepted), you see that the path it took to get to your destination is exactly the path God intended you to take…and hopefully you grew from the twists in the road!

Closing Prayer:

Heavenly Father, thank you for designing the paths in my life. I can't always see the good in the crooked paths and wish things may sometimes turn out differently, but your plan is bigger and better than my own! I wish to praise you in both good times and bad and pray that my own agenda does not get in the way of that happening! Please keep guiding my path. In your Son's name - Amen.


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