99galleries.com | Send this imageWhen you don't get what you want (1)'Grow in grace' 2 PETER 3:18 Psychologist Henry Cloud does a lot of corporate consulting. Sometimes he asks executives this question: 'When in your business training or education, did you ever take a course on how to lose well?' Losing is an inevitable part of life. It gives us an invaluable window into the development of our character. How do we do when we're part of a team that makes a decision that's opposed? How do we handle it when the promotion we applied for, goes to somebody else? How do we do when our idea, proposal, or invitation for a date gets rejected? To live is to lose. But to lose badly, gracelessly, can be lethal. The president of an organization has an agenda for change that is dead in the water. No one wants it. But he's stubborn and won't take no for an answer, so he gets malicious compliance instead. People don't resist him openly, but they sabotage his agenda. He loses their respect and their loyalty. He could not stand to lose on his agenda; so instead, he loses what matters far more. A pastor wants his church to change in ways that the people don't embrace. He wants it to look like his ideal of what a church should be. So he preaches angry sermons that chastise them for not following his leadership. He tries to pressure the elders. He threatens, he whines, he manipulates. Eventually the elders ask him to leave the church. Because he cannot learn from his losses, he loses everything. Peter, who was known for being bull-headed, had grown wiser and more mature, so he writes, 'Grow in grace.' When you don't get what you want - be gracious!
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99galleries.com | Send this imageThursday, July 23, 2009 9:08 AM'The God of all comfort.' 2 CORINTHIANS 1:3 God can bring you through situations you think you won't survive, or feel you'll be stuck in forever. He can make you comfortable in the most uncomfortable places, and give you peace in the midst of trauma. Before your life is over you'll live, love, and experience loss. Losing some things will actually help you to appreciate the things you still have. It's the taste of failure that makes success sweet. You'll live each day not knowing what tomorrow holds, but confident that God has your tomorrows all planned out. They're not in the hands of your boss or your banker or your mate or anybody else. Nor are they in your own hands to manipulate and control. No, all your tomorrows are in God's hands. Just because you don't recognize the path you're on doesn't mean that God's not leading you. He promises, '...I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, and not forsake them' (Isaiah 42:16 NKJV). So get to know God - you'll need Him. And He'll be there for you. He'll be there when everybody and everything else has failed you. He'll be there for you in the dark places. '...Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning' (Psalm 30:5 NKJV). However long the night, morning always comes, and with it His joy. As you look back you'll realize that His grace protected you, provided for you, secured you, calmed you, comforted you and brought you through. Times and seasons change, but not God. He's always 'the God of all comfort.'
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