I have been noticing lately that the three-letter word BUT is a game changer in my communication. I find that the word is harmful because it has the strange ability to cancel all the words that precede it;
- I’m sorry I hurt your feelings BUT you really upset me
- I know I was wrong BUT so were you
- I should have kept my mouth closed BUT she asked for it
Inmost cases, people believe the words following the BUT more than those that preceded it. Why then do I struggle believing the words after the BUT when Jesus speaks it?
- “You intended to harm me, BUT God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” — Gen 50:20
- Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, BUT with God all things are possible. — Matt 19:26
- I am telling you this so that you will stay away from sin. BUT if you sin, there is someone to plead for you before the Father. His name is Jesus Christ, the one who is all that is good and who pleases God completely. — 1 John 2:1
“BUT God” appears in various forms hundreds of times in the Bible spoken by Jesus, Moses, Paul and many others. So much hinges on that single word as a BUT always changes reality. Isn’t that often where our God sits—in that other reality whose values, actions and reactions are not of this world? And when we dwell there with him, our lives are forever changed.
God flips our world upside down by seeing it differently with just three letters!
We can’t reverse what decisions we have made nor the circumstances that have happened prior in our lives BUT, with Jesus at the center, He tells us it is going to be different moving forward.
Are you hearing and believing what Jesus has to say about your current circumstance? Instead of telling God about the size of your problem, tell your problem about the size of your God.
Question |
How hard is it for you to flip your trust from BUT me to BUT God?