Tuesday, June 28, 2011

The Jigsaw Puzzle Life

Who moved my pieces?



2 Corinthians 1:3-11  All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 5 For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. 6 Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. 7 We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us. More >>

Colossians 3:15  And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts.

Jeremiah 10:23  I know, Lord, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course.

The jigsaw puzzle sits in the box, a thousand pieces of a beautiful picture, what an amazing amount of potential. That's the way a lot of us feel, our lives could be a beautiful picture if we could just figure out how to keep things together so that there aren't any pieces falling out.

Do you think that life is supposed to be a beautiful crossword puzzle with all of the pieces in the right place? My wife suffers with chronic pain and a constant fever, my friends and neighbors are dealing with divorce, loss of a parent, a wayward child. It wasn't any easier for God's people, take a look in the Bible and tell me who had their jigsaw puzzle all together.

The child of God can break through the worst of times by relying on God, our source of comfort, in the midst of persecution and trials we know that our loving Father is in control and that he can make peace of our chaos and someday he will make all things new and put all of the pieces of our puzzle together.

Look at what the Apostle Paul tells us about suffering and about comfort:
  • We are comforted so that we can pass it on. (2 Cor 1:3)
  • Greater suffering brings greater comfort. (2 Cor 1:5)
  • Rely on the one that can bring you back from death. (2 Cor 1:9)
  • Want to help your neighbor that is suffering? Say a prayer. (2 Cor 1:11)
To think that we are supposed to be in control, and have all of the pieces in the right place is a lie of the devil and we should not believe that being a child of God is going to make our puzzle come together. We will live with pieces out of place and at times we won't even know if we have all of the pieces.

I admit that you are in control Lord and that I need to trust in you for my peace in this hectic, broken world. Thank you for giving us a bright future with you for eternity.