AUGUST 5, 2015
Chess Master
We,
according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which
righteousness dwells.— 2 Peter 3:13
Read:
Romans
8:18-25
In high school I took pride in my ability to
play chess. I joined the chess club, and during lunch hour I could be found
sitting at a table with other nerds, poring over books with titles like Classic
King Pawn Openings. I studied techniques, won most of my matches, and put the
game aside for 20 years. Then I met a truly fine chess player who had been
perfecting his skills long since high school, and I learned what it is like to
play against a master. Although I had complete freedom to make any move I
wished, none of my strategies mattered very much. His superior skill guaranteed
that my purposes inevitably ended up serving his own.
Perhaps there is a spiritual picture for us here. God grants us freedom
to rebel against His original design, but even as we do so we end up serving
His eventual goal of restoration (Rom. 8:21; 2 Peter 3:13; Rev. 21:1). This
transformed the way I view both good and bad things. Good things—such as
health, talent, and money—I can present to God as offerings to serve His
purposes. And bad things—disability, poverty, family dysfunction, failure—can
be “redeemed” as the very instruments that drive me to God.
With the Grand Master, victory is assured, no matter how the board of
life may look at any given moment.
Father, I’m grateful that in all of life Your
purposes are being accomplished. May I learn to have open hands—to accept
whatever You give to me and whatever You take from me. Help me to trust Your
heart.
When we can’t see God’s hand, we can trust His
heart.
INSIGHT:
As followers of Jesus we look forward in hope
to the new heaven and the new earth where we will spend eternity in loving
adoration and communion with the triune God and with each other. Today’s
passage from Paul’s letter to the Romans suggests that reconciliation and
restoration—the undoing of all the damage of sin—is not limited to humanity.
God’s good creation (see Gen. 1) is also groaning under the weight of sin and
is waiting for the ultimate realization of salvation provided by God through
Christ. J.R. Hudberg
Source: Our Daily Bread 2015
