Connect the Dots
“For God is working in you, giving you the desire to
obey Him and the power to do what pleases Him.”
obey Him and the power to do what pleases Him.”
The picture represented by the dots scattered across the page is not always easily recognizable until you begin to connect the dots, as the name of the simple game indicates, drawing lines from one dot to another until the picture begins to take definition and become clear. And the games range in difficulty from those made for children to adult versions in easy, medium, and hard formats. The principle of connecting the dots, with all its variations, can also be applied to our walk with the Lord and can provide each of us with a valuable lesson.
When we face situations, for example, that really try our patience, we can look at them as isolated incidents to be reacted to, and totally miss the point of what God is trying to accomplish in our lives through them. So often those situations happen over and over again because we are failing to “connect the dots” between our current struggles and God’s desire to build character in our lives and to prepare us for our future. Our failure to connect the dots in our walk with the Lord can be fatal to our attitudes, to our spiritual priorities, and to the needed breakthroughs we are longing for.
The principle has to make us step back and look at the circumstances of our lives: the delays and the waiting, the conflicts and the struggles in relationships, the stretching and the call to walk in faith, the challenge to be faithful and to go the second mile, and the pain and sorrows we too often encounter. In a vacuum, we would certainly react to each of these life situations with a kind of disdain for the difficulties they present. But looking at the bigger picture, where we are cognizant of the need to connect the dots, should cause us to respond with acceptance and a cry for grace to help us through.
The lesson has hit home with me; the need to start to connect the dots before frustration sets in and mistakes are made is very clear. Just as connecting the dots results in a picture being revealed, connecting the dots in a game where God has a plan and a purpose for each of our lives is crucial to the endurance we need, to the determination required, and to the acceptance of where God has each of us at this time in our lives.
God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church
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