"The Flip Side"

"Be surety for thy servant for good: let not the proud oppress me." (Psalms 119:123)

 Something else my mom always tried to say, that there was two sides to every coin. I am still trying to figure out what that meant and can't quite remember the context that she said it in; but in the way that I see it here, it simply means that there are always two ways that we look at every situation, either that God is i control, or that He is not! Let's just pretend for a moment that it really didn't matter whether the proud could oppress us; let's say, for the sake of argument, that it was going to happen anyways, so you just had to deal with it. What would you do about it? What could you do about it? Well, for starters, you could simply treat it like something that is really not all that important; I mean, what can they do that would change anything about where you are going to be when it's all over; absolutely nothing! But God, who is the Master Artist of all of creation, He uses all of our experiences, all of which are no surprise to Him, for His master plan; whether good or bad, they all work for the good! So, in the light of there being two sides to every coin, there is really only one coin! Both sides, whether we choose to believe it or not, are His workmanship; the big difference between how it affects our lives is how we spend the coin. In other words, do we allow it to be used for the world or for heaven? Maybe that does not quite hit the spot it was intended to hit; so let me try it again. You are going to have trials, it is just how it goes; that is something that cannot be avoided, at least not by anything we can plan. The big difference between what happens during our trials depends on the way we receive them and how we react. If we take our situation and make it His opportunity to use us, then we are making ourselves available to be used for the Kingdom of God; if we make our situation the oppressive work of the world, then we being spent on the world; either way the coin is still God's, but how we experience it being spent is entirely different. How do you want your life spent? Take a look at that word, "surety," and remember who it is that makes the promises, and more importantly, is able and willing to keep them. Another part of His testimonies always being plural, is that with every commandment of God, there comes with it a promise...

"For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God. And insomuch as not without an oath he was made priest: (For those priests were made without an oath; but this was an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek:) By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament." (Hebrews 7:18-22) KJV