Instead God

This past spring, I attended an IF: Gathering. It was a great experience and I really recommend you attend or watch one if you are able. That being said, here is the main thing I took away from this one.

Early on in the first session, they interviewed a woman who had lost literally almost everything when a tornado took her home, her children, her health, and almost her life. Almost everything except her faith. At one point in her story she was talking and started a sentence by saying, "Instead God". And that stuck with me. I don't know that I even really heard the rest.

Instead. It's just a typical word we use everyday, but it can carry so much meaning. Instead is defined as "a substitute or replacement", something that happens "in the place of someone or something".

Ring a bell? If you're a believer, it ought to. Time after time after time throughout Scriptures, there are instances of man doing something silly (or flat out stupid) and instead of having to suffer the consequences, God swoops in and saves them.

Abraham and Isaac. Countless other stories of sacrifice. Jesus Christ. So many "instead God" instances seen throughout Scripture.

"For all have sinned and fall short

of the glory of God and are justified

by His grace as a gift, through the

redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

whom God put forward as a propitiation

by His blood, to be received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness,

because in His divine forbearance

He had passed over former sins."

Romans 3:23-25

Instead of us suffering for our sins, God did. Instead of us wandering aimlessly without purpose through this world, God gave us reason to live for Him. Instead of all the alternatives, God.

He took our place. He died for you and for me. Each and every day the truth remains that He did it despite the fact that it wasn't something He had to do. But He wanted to. He wanted to close the gap that sin had created between us and Him. He wanted to ensure we had the opportunity to be with Him again...to find redemption in Him. He wanted to take our plans made with our simple human minds and "instead God" them into a divine plan for our lives. He wants to take our worlds and irreversibly change them...if we will let Him.

It may seem silly or strange to let Someone control your life. But believe me, life will be all the better for it. I had plans. God got ahold of them though. I'm so glad that He is a God of "instead". Because what coulda, shoulda, woulda been doesn't apply with Him.

#Instead #God #sacrifice