Have you ever settled with a choice that was second-best? Perhaps you felt cornered and took "the easy way out." In today's episode we learn that even when we make second-best decisions, messes of our own making, and choices we wish we could take back, God still extends a loving hand to us in our neediness, offering to make our crooked path straight.
In this episode of "Making the Best of a Bad Decision," we draw a final lesson from Adam and Eve's terrible decision to rebel. We learn that we can never truly predict or control the consequences of our sin, but we are also confronted with the unthinkable depth of God's grace. He is always willing to redeem a bad decision that is surrendered to Him.
From the beginning, the inclination of sinful humanity has been to hide from God. When Adam and Eve realized their sin, the last thing they wanted was to be in God's righteous presence. But He was the only one who could address their shame and provide an ultimate solution, a promised descendant who would crush the enemy of their souls forever. Do you need to come out of hiding today and face the God who offers, in Himself, the solution to your greatest problem?
Today in our series, Pastor Lutzer examines what he calls "the anatomy of a bad decision" from the story of the fall in Genesis 3. From Adam and Eve's terrible choice to rebel against God, we learn much about our own hearts, and we learn how to apply this insight to escape destructive cycles of our own making.
These days we often talk about "pivoting" when the unexpected occurs. But is God subject to such a necessity? When He found Adam and Eve in the garden after their sin, did He have to pivot and rearrange His plans to account for it? In today's episode, Pastor Lutzer discusses the implications of our limited control over circumstances in light of God's limitless sovereignty.
Do you struggle to accept God's help when you feel that your problems are your own fault? Today, Pastor Lutzer starts a new series, entitled, "Making the Best of a Bad Decision." In it we learn that a bad decision, by God's grace, doesn't have to be the end of the story and no matter how many wrong paths you have taken, there is still a right one just up ahead.
In this last episode of the series, "When You've Been Wronged," we are considering "the why" behind Joseph's seemingly astonishing decision to forgive. Why would he forgive his brothers after they had caused him so much turmoil? The answer is this: Joseph was able to step back and see the bigger picture. He knew that God had been there all along and that He was able to make every wrong right and orchestrate everything to His divine purposes. In this way, Joseph foreshadowed another to come, one who faced the greatest injustice imaginable and yet "entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly."
Born into disfunction, mercilessly betrayed by his own, and wrongly condemned to prison — there seemed to be countless reasons for Joseph to choose resentment and retaliation. Are you and I prone to cling to our wrongs, or can we say with Joseph: "God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction?"
Since God always foresees the end of the story, we may never know why He chose to favor King Saul with the blessings and the position that He did. What we can know, however, is that God can use circumstances in our lives to purge each of us of the "King Saul" in our hearts. Are you ready to relinquish your little "kingdom" to God today?
King Saul didn’t take it well when God said He was going to give His kingdom to someone else. Saul believed the kingdom was his, not God’s – and he was going to hold onto "his" throne at any cost. In today's episode, Pastor Lutzer outlines the characteristics of a "spear-thrower" and how to react to them.