Set backs to Set Ups

  We often think of set backs as horrific things in life. We often see them as signs that God the Father does not love us, and that we feel abandoned.  When I think of abandonment. it was when I was eleven and being left an airport with a complete stranger never to see my biological brother ever again.  A very huge set back. What I did not know is that was going to be God's set up for me to have empathy for people who feel alone and afraid. 

 If we look in the Bible, lots of people had set backs. So, let us look first at Abraham. He was old, and Sarah was was also old, yet God made it seem impossible for them to have children. Was it a set back, yes to them definitely. However, for God it was a set up so He could be glorified. A set up for the biggest illustration on patience, and faith. 

 Let us look at another example Ruth. I can identify a lot with Ruth.  I have lost three families in one lifetime. I always felt like an outcast. So, there is a massive famine, she, Naomi, and Oprah are starving to death and they each have lost their husbands. Ruth, has a conscience for a Moabite and decides to stay with Naomi maybe it was because she took pity on her. Oprah, decided to go back to her own people. 

 So, Naomi and Ruth are living in the Bronx of Israel. They are surrounded but the down and outs. They are sleeping rough. They are having to pick up the chaff of wheat that is in the field, hard backbreaking work and it is hotter than hot. Boaz sees this woman whose  skin is burned crispy, and she is so hot she is moving at a turtle's pace through the field. He tells his servants to drop full wheat bushels so it is not so hard for her. She smiles at the servants goes home, and tells Naomi that she found slave labour work at the fields that belong to Boaz. Turns out Naomi knows B. A distant relative. So, there is a massive wedding think of Cinderella meets Prince Charming. Set back yep, starving, wandering, and being a widow is hard, but God was setting up Ruth to be in the lineage of Jesus Christ Himself. 

 Joseph is another example. Imagine you are the favourite child. This has never been my story though we all I think, know there is that one kid in every family that has the Midas Touch. Not only do they have the Midas Touch, they are made of gold themselves it seems. They are coined the golden child and this was, Jospeh. Jealousy was rife with his other brothers. So, they scheme a plot to throw him in a pit, and then some human traffickers were coming along, and his twelve brothers decide that it seems like a brilliant idea to sell their brother into human trafficking. Then, the king's  wife takes a liking to his bulky arms and high cheek bones, and every time Joseph smiles his eyes sparkle underneath his sweat, and she decides to bed the pool boy. Joseph runs she cries rape instead of admitting she is a wanton woman of desire to her husband. So, the king throws him into prison for 12 years, and prison then meant rats bigger than a size 13 Nike, no running water, and think about New York City sewer being your crib for the next 12 years. This was his home and there are probably a few corpses just there for terrorising the prisoners that are chilling while you eat; crusty, mouldy, flat bread. Set back absolutely. Yet God had a plan, Joseph became second in command, his brothers had to repent and tell their father the truth, Joseph got an Egyptian hottie as a wife, had two sons and Israel became fat and did not starve. 

 See, in life we often see set backs as the worst of times, to quote Dickens. Rather, we forget, that there is a bigger plan. Recently, I read a story of young lady in Menasha, WI whose husband, daughter, and she herself were all shot, all because her husband asked a man on a bench if he was okay. Her husband and daughter died on the spot. Set back, yes absolutely and I could not imagine the pain she lives with,  the swirling questions that run their track in her mind daily. Yet, what a set up to show faith, hope, and courage, and to expose God's astounding faithfulness when her life turned upside down. 

 Is your life upside down?  Are you having a hard time realising that your marriage is over, and a spouse wants that dreaded divorce that is breaking your heart? Are you mourning the loss of miscarriages, and dealing with emotional blows of infertility?  Are you dealing with tragic loss of someone in your family being killed due to disease or random acts of violence? I am sorry. Life is full of set backs and heartaches. This is why Jesus died on the cross was to give us hope when setbacks happen. To give us the bravery to carry on. He is setting up something wonderful for us in Heaven. He will do something amazing with the pain. God did not just leave Jesus in the tomb, no rather He raised Jesus back from the dead. He set him up to take the keys of death from Satan himself. 

 Trust God with your set backs. Trust that Romans 8:28 is specifically for you today. All things work for the good of those that love Him who are called according to His purpose. Have you trusted Christ with your life? Have you made Him Lord and Saviour?  Have you asked Him into your heart and said. "God, I simply cannot go on without you, I need you in my heart to make me right with You. I want to to live in eternity with you. Take control over my life Lord Jesus. Help me to live for you, give me a new heart, mind and soul. I believe that you died on the cross for my sins, I am a sinner. I have broken your commands and I cannot be good enough to enter Heaven,  because you are perfect and holy. Take my sins away. Thank you for loving me enough to die for me. I give you my set backs, so you can set me up to have a new life, Lord Jesus. 

 The Bible says we are all sinners needing the atonement of Jesus Christ's blood. That he came as a man and fully God to die on a cross. Jesus said on the cross it is finished. All the hurt, shame, and guilt you have felt because of someone else, and the definite hurt you have caused other people Jesus took it all on Him. It was the ultimate set up for all of our set backs. You can trust Jesus to put your set backs into being the best set up you ever thought possible. Are you ready, my dear friend to let go of your set backs and allow Jesus to set you up for eternity?  It does not matter what you have done murder, abortion, stealing, adultery, backbiting, fornication, gossip, disobedience to your parents, hatred, racism, coveting, and bitterness. Jesus, paid it all. He never loved you less for anything you have ever done, and he will not love you less even if you never accept Him, even in hell you will be loved the same by Him. There is nothing, that can separate us from the love of God. He loves everyone exponentially and vastly. Accept Jesus so all of your set backs can lead to eternal and lasting set ups because of the gift on the cross. 

 Today, my dear reader, I pray that you have all of your set backs turned into set ups. That the love of Christ will cover you with an abundance of grace. God sometimes does not fix things right away but I pray that you trust in His sovereignty as God. That nothing, absolutely nothing; happens by accident, that everything on earth though not done by God Himself,  nothing happens that is not out of His ultimate control. I pray that you can fully trust Christ knowing His ways are not our ways nor His thoughts our Thoughts. He loves taking messed up set backs and making them amazing set ups for His astounding glory. By trusting in Him and not the set back, that you will surely THRIVE! May you THRIVE, ABIDE, and WORSHIP the King of ULTIMATE SET UPS! 

_ This was sponsored by Nassir.