Joel Osteen - Necessary Endings

We all have times when things come to an end that we weren't expecting. We were going along fine, enjoying life, then the company downsizes, and we're let go. A relationship doesn't work out. We may not understand it, doesn't make sense, but it's a necessary ending. Without that door closing you wouldn't see the greater things God has in store.

If you don't understand that God has necessary endings, you'll fight every closed door, try to hold on to things that God has done with. But the ending wasn't random. You're not just unlucky, a bad break, it was the hand of God.

If you don't understand that he has necessary endings, then you'll get bitter when the manna ceases. "Why did this door close? Why did this person walk away? Why did this contract get canceled"? God knows what he's doing. Without that ending, you wouldn't see your Promised Land.

The right attitude is, "God, I trust you. I don't like this, but I know, it's a necessary ending, that you're ordering my steps, that you wouldn't have allowed this manna to cease, unless you had something better coming". You have to accept that it's a necessary ending, that God is changing the season.

Just keep moving forward, honoring God, knowing that it was a necessary ending, that God wouldn't have stopped it if he didn't have something better coming. Are you fighting endings, bitter over what God stopped, discouraged over what didn't last? What if you knew that it had to happen? And even though it felt like a bad break, it was God leading you into the fullness of your destiny.

And I know we have to hold on to our dreams, we have to stand in faith, but we also have to realize that God has necessary endings. Sometimes he'll stop things, he'll cause the manna to cease, he'll push you out. It's because he has something better coming.

That's when you have to trust, "God, you know what's best for me. I may not like this, but I'm going to stay in faith, knowing that this is a necessary ending, and it's leading me to a greater beginning".