Accept What Cannot Be Changed
By Rick Warren
“I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:11-13 (NLT)
Worrying about what cannot be changed won’t give you peace. Becoming resentful or bitter about what cannot be changed will not give you peace. Feeling guilty about things that cannot be changed will not give you peace.
Only one thing brings peace about the things that cannot be changed—accepting those things.
When Paul wrote the book of Philippians, he was in prison in Rome, awaiting execution. He wrote, “I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:11-13 NLT).
Paul probably wanted to change his circumstances, and he could have lashed out at God and questioned what was happening to him. Instead, he trusted God for the things that he could not change and chose to give God the glory.
I can tell you one thing that keeps us tense and nervous and stressed out in difficult circumstances: our demand for an explanation. When something goes wrong, we say, “Why is this happening, God? Why did you allow this?”
Here are three things you need to understand:
First, God doesn’t owe you an explanation for anything. God is good, just, and fair, and he understands things that you don’t. You need to just say, “Okay.”
Second, even if he did explain why things happen the way they do, you probably still wouldn’t understand. You cannot comprehend the ways of God.
Third, explanations never bring peace anyway; explanations never satisfy.
What does comfort you is the presence of God in your life—not God’s explanations but his care and concern and comfort.
Stop looking for something that you really don’t need, and stop trying to change things that are out of your control. Then you will have peace.
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This devotional © 2018 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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