Daily Success
Institute in Basic Life Principles

Command 6 : Be Reconciled | Day 42

Expect God to Work!

When a flight attendant remembered how she had offended an acquaintance months earlier, she purposed to attempt reconciliation. However, she had no idea how to make contact, because that acquaintance lived in another country. The very next afternoon she received a phone call from that person!

The same thing happened to a young man who remembered how he had wronged a former teacher. He decided to contact the teacher, but did not know where to start. Five minutes later he stooped over to take a drink from a water fountain. When he straightened up and turned around, who should he see but that former teacher! Not all reconciliation encounters are this dramatic. However:

When we are prepared to make reconciliation, God will do whatever is necessary to make it happen.

Early in the morning, when I began writing this e-mail, I purposed to apply this command to my own life. Immediately, God brought to my mind a man with whom I needed to be reconciled. However, I had been trying to make reconciliation with him for several years, and every attempt resulted only in deeper conflict. So, I concluded that this reconciliation would be impossible and asked the Lord for another idea.

A second person came to mind, and I decided I would try to contact him. So, I drove over to visit him at his home. I thought I knew where he lived. However, when I got to the neighborhood, I couldn't locate his house, so I began driving up and down the streets looking for a familiar landmark. I finally came to a business intersection and my car just stopped. Try as I may, I could not restart the engine.

This was a new experience for me (and the car!). I sat there as cars began to line up behind me. Then, I saw two young men running from across the street. As they got closer, I recognized them as IBLP staff members. They had been eating in the restaurant across the street when they saw me in distress. They helped me push the car into the corner parking lot, and when I got out of the car, a man came up to me and asked, "Can I help you?" I looked at him in astonishment! He was the first individual that God had brought to my mind that morning when I had purposed to apply this command in my life! Here we were, neither of us in our own neighborhood, and God had brought us together.

I accepted his offer of help and asked if he could drive me back to my office. On the way, we both looked at each other and agreed that God had truly arranged unexpected circumstances to bring us together and that He had done it for the purpose of encouraging us toward reconciliation. We made plans to meet together for that purpose.

When people see the hand of God in reconciliation, they are also motivated to bring their gifts of praise to God's altar.

Some of the most exciting and meaningful chapters you could possibly write in your journal are the steps that you took to make reconciliation with those whom you have offended and the work of God in making it happen.

“... First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift” (Matthew 5:23-24).

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Contributing writer: Bill Gothard