When Life Does Not Go Your Way | Daily Devotional 1632

You're listening to My Morning Devotional Podcast, episode 1632. Today's evil is called When Life Does Not Go Your Way.

Hey there, we're the Alexis, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy, the to-do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why every weekday we share a five-minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast.

Good morning, everybody, and happy Tuesday. Welcome back to My Morning Devotional Podcast. My name is Rashad Alesi, and I get to be your host this week. Before we start, I would love to thank you guys for my coffee. Because of you, I get to have coffee today. And if you don't know what that means, is we do have our Buy Me a Coffee. And it honestly is such a blessing because it continues to allow us to do what we are doing. So thank you to all of our subscribers who have bought coffees this year and are allowing us to continue this. And if you're new to my Morning Devo, please check it out. We're gonna put all the information down below because I promise you you're gonna love it. We even create bonus episodes every couple of months, actually, maybe even monthly. And guys, we are looking to expand this. So please keep your eyes and ears open as more information will come very, very soon. But we are working on some amazing things just to provide extra things for you on your daily walk with the Lord. Um, so thank you for all of you that allow us to continue this journey with you. And um, as you know, we're going through the book of Philippians this entire month, and I get the privilege of starting it. So uh I read Philippians 1 through 11, and today we're actually gonna go Philippians 1, 12 through 18. So it's a little more verses than usual. So please follow along with me. And it says, Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear. It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of good will. The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, necessarily, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does matter, that important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached, and because of this I rejoice, yes, and I will continue to rejoice. Guys, let's go back to yesterday. We know that Paul is writing this from prison, and we end this verse as saying, he is saying this, okay? He wrote this, yes, and I will continue to rejoice. Yesterday we learned about his joy, no matter the circumstance or the place that he was put in, and we know that he was put in prison, and now this even goes even further because he's trying to preach the gospel of Jesus. He's in a really hard place, he's even hearing things from his brothers and his sisters, his fellow Christians that are writing to him back. But because of all these writings, because of everything that's happening, Paul's looking at this and saying, as long as Christ is being proclaimed, I rejoice. He was in a prison that even the guards' lives were being changed by what they were hearing and what they were seeing in Paul, that this prison was not killing him. He was in prison rejoicing because the Lord was being proclaimed. And in this episode, we we named it when life doesn't go our way, because many things happen to us. There are circumstances that are external that we did not see coming. Yet he chooses to say, as long as the Lord is being proclaimed, I'm happy. What if you and I saw our life today, just like Paul did? We already are on the top because none of us are in prison. We are all here on our drive to work, maybe at home getting our house prepared, or working, maybe this is your lunch break, and they are things to be thankful for. The fact that you are driving to work and you have a job, or your family, you're driving to kiss to school, whatever you are right now is a reason to be thankful for. So we already are like above what Paul was experiencing at the time. So what if we looked at every other area of our life that's a little more difficult? The things that did not go the way we thought that they would, and we say, Hey, how can God be proclaimed in this area? How can I change my attitude and my actions to truly show the Lord? Because He did that. He even impacted guards in a prison because of the way he behaved. He had joy in a prison, and all these people got to see that, and because of that, the Lord got to be proclaimed. What if you and I showed up to work in a really hard day and we had joy and we had confidence? The Lord would be proclaimed through that. What if in our family, in that really hard situation, we showed up with peace and authority and confidence and with positive thinking, the Lord will be proclaimed when we do that. We might not be in prison, but we have many things in our life that did not go the way we thought. And those things are hard. But we get to choose how we react to those things. And it's funny because I feel like a lot of my episodes have to do with this. Somehow it happens, but there's many things in my life that did not go the way that I thought they would. But when I choose to have the posture of I am gonna trust the Lord, I'm gonna believe in him, and I am going to change my attitude and my actions to show him, man, my life changes and his name is proclaimed. So, what's the most important thing in our lives? The people get to see Jesus proclaimed, and that is through the way that we live today. So, how about this? No matter the things that did not go our way, we're gonna choose to see it as a way of, hey, the Lord can be proclaimed. So let's change our attitudes, let's change our actions in a way that it does reflect that, but we can do this together. So let's pray today. Father God, thank you for all the moments that things did not go our way, because your word says that your ways and your thoughts are higher than ours. So we surrender to your will and we thank you for your provision in advance. And I pray, Lord, that you will be with us as we completely change our mindsets to be positive and to be godly, Lord. I pray that your name will be proclaimed and that you will just fill our hearts to continue to do this and that we will move forward in our lives. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

So there you have it, your five minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. If you've found value in this devotional, share it with a friend, leave a comment or review for us on the app you're using right now. Until tomorrow, we pray that your latte is strong, but your love for Jesus is stronger.