Your Place in History

During my lifetime, I've lived eight years in Europe and visited scores of other countries. These were wonderful experiences, but nothing changes the fact that I was born an American.

My birth-country is part of God's plan for me, just as your birth-country is part of God's plan for you.

Acts 17:25-27 says, “He himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.”

It's important that we realize we are designed for a purpose! God decided when and where we would be born, which parents we'd have, our abilities and personalities. We are part of His story, and that is what gives our lives purpose and meaning.

He promises to use the good and the bad in our personal history, and He does the same with the good and bad in our country's history (Romans 8:28). His bottom-line purpose for every country and every individual is that we would seek Him and find Him. 

May we never forget that He is “not far from any one of us ”

💙 Beyond 1-minute for those who want more, plus some important truths about racism.💙 

To do a short study on this devotion and get a fuller understanding of the importance of your role in God's story, check out today's Bite Size Bible Study.

I hate racism, and I've written with great sorrow about the bigotry in America in my Devotions Addressing Racism. But America's history also contains stories of heroic white abolitionists like Angelina Grimké and Harriet Beecher Stowe and Christian pastors like David Brainard and Francis Asbury who sought equality for Native Americans and African slaves. To negatively stereotype all of American history by the bad parts is no different than negatively stereotyping a race by the bad members of that race. 

 

We should oppose negative stereotypes of both minorities and whites because "whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar." 1 John 4:20

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