The God of the Cinderella Story

She was a mere servant, bound to fulfill the selfish desires of those who were supposed to treat her like family. Day after day she served faithfully without protest. Rather than complaining, within her heart was a song of hope that someday her life would radically be changed. When her life’s situation seemed to be at its worst, that’s when an unexpected opportunity came and she captured the attention of the prince of her country. She showed up at a ball (a party) that was designed for the prince to choose his bride. Beyond her physical beauty was the beauty of holiness and exemplary character. The crowd watched and complained as the prince chose her alone to dance with. With disdain and jealousy they asked, “Where did she come from? We have never seen her before.” She eventually married the prince and would become a queen. Those who mocked her and abused her were punished.



Lord, let those who read this hear with spiritual ears the symbolism of this story because this is your story and it is our story. You are the God of the Cinderella Story.

This was the fable that has inspired the phrase, “a Cinderella Story,” meaning that someone came out of obscurity and immense difficulty to achieve something great. But long before this story were the stories of the Bible that actually reveal the God of the Cinderella Story. In fact, Scripture teaches that this is God’s modus operandi.

Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world's eyes, or powerful, or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God deliberately chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose those who are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important, so that no one can ever boast in the presence of God (1 Cor 1:26-29).

This passage tells us that God deliberately chose those who were weak, those who were abused, despised, and rejected by those more powerful. He chose those who, in comparison to the well educated and wise of this world, seem foolish. God did it then and continues to do it to shame those who think they are wise and important so no one can EVER boast in God’s presence.

The Bible is replete with stories of the insignificant accomplishing great things. The old having children; a Hebrew slave becoming a ruler of the greatest nation of that time; a nation of wanderers displacing ten nations with giants, walled cities, and huge populations; a child defeating the largest giant of all recorded time; the timid that became brave and the weak that became victors like Gideon’s army of 300 that defeated an army of thousands; or like Jehoshaphat who defeated three armies that joined to destroy Judah a single tribe left in Israel. Or Hezekiah who trusted in the Lord in spite of the king of Assyria destroying every other nation it had attacked. The Lord caused the armies of Sennacherib of Assyria to be defeated by an angel. Time limits me of speaking of Daniel, Jeremiah, and the countless others.

Were ANY of these success stories a result of their own ability to become victorious over their situation? No, in fact in most cases, what they accomplished was impossible and unattainable through natural means. That is what I believe God is trying to get us to understand and why the Apostle Paul prayed that the eyes of our understanding might be opened that we would know what is the exceeding greatness of His power that works in those who believe (Eph. 1:19).

Sometimes we get it in our heads that only the strong survive. Or that only the educated are wise or that success is measured by how many possessions someone has. Sadly, this belief is found even in the church where it is believed that being financially endued is equated with godliness, or where a relationship with God is measured by how many degrees one has rather than a lifestyle that reflects godly behavior.

I think many of us buy into a naturalistic concept of the identity of God because we really fail to seek Him passionately enough to see His hand working in our lives. We substitute pragmatism for a legitimate move or revelation of God. We replace Spiritual gifts and God’s anointing with natural talents. We lean on our own understanding rather than believing for the miraculous and as a result we limit Him. To many of us, Christianity is a mere crutch that we lean on only when we need to. True Christianity on the contrary is a stretcher in which we lay our lives down, cease to do our own will, and rely solely upon the promises of God for strength and deliverance. God promises, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness," and that when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Cor 12:9…10).

Do we really believe that? Do we really seek and rely on God’s strength, His anointing, His wisdom, and His way over what we can accomplish on our own? How many of us seek to be weak, rejoice in our weaknesses, believing that in them is the greatest opportunity for God to show His power and control over all the situations of our lives?

How many of us “lean on our own understanding” instead of acknowledging Him (Prov 3:5-6)? We struggle so often to be in control of the situations of our lives and to live our lives in whatever way we think is right because we believe, “It is my life and my right to do what I want.” When problems come into our lives, we often question God’s faithfulness and love for us. But, God doesn’t want the difficulties, trials or temptations of life to cause us to fall under the weight of them; He wants us to come to Him to receive the way of escape (1 Cor 10:13). His plan is to use us as instruments of righteousness to accomplish something great, something unique, or something that reveals His presence (Mt 5:16).

In all the Cinderella Stories of the Bible, each one of them learned that the way to receive victory over whatever situation they faced was to go to God, explain the circumstance, confess their own weakness and inability to handle the situation, do whatever He said (even if it made no logical sense) and then put their trust in God to deliver them. I am persuaded that Jesus is the same today as yesterday and He still wants to do great things in our lives that testify of His presence. The Bible declares that God desires to do exceeding, abundantly above all that we can ask or think (Eph. 3:20).

Perhaps we need to be reminded that the greatest Cinderella Story in the Bible concerned a boy born to a poor family and was raised in a small town. He had to work hard to make a living. The Bible describes him as plain without the sort of attractiveness that would draw people to him. But he loved people and sought to do good for them with God’s help. When he was in his thirties, he dedicated his life to full time ministry. Out of nowhere he began to do the miraculous, healed the sick, and taught with great authority. Surprisingly, those around him began to question his teaching and claims. “How did he get these things?” They all asked and became offended with him (Mt.13:56-57). Out of jealousy they had him killed, but when a happy ending seemed impossible, he was miraculously raised from the dead and was exalted to the Father’s own right hand far above every ruler and all creation. Of course this is the story of Jesus Christ the greatest of all Cinderella stories.

If we are His, we will share in His ministry of weakness so that the power of God may manifest itself in us. He must increase and we must decrease (Jn 3:30, Zech 4:6).

What are we Thankful For? A Paradigm Shift

Are you part of a family that has each person give thanks for something in their lives as part of their Thanksgiving celebration? Typically there are thanks given for our lives, our families and the things we possess. It is only natural for us to be thankful for all the things that we perceive to be good. After all we would think that who in their right mind would be thankful for things that were unpleasant or difficult? Which begs the question, what if it seemed that there was nothing to be thankful for, could we still give thanks to God?

If we are Christians, but we are going through difficult times, have we lost the reason to give thanks? No, the Bible teaches that God’s will for us is that we would give thanks in every circumstance in our lives (1 Thess 5:18). Therefore what we need is a new paradigm for Thanksgiving. In other words, we need a new focus for the reason to give thanks.

Roget’s Thesaurus lists, as synonyms for the word thankful, the words contented and satisfied. The first step to giving thanks in every circumstance is contentment. What is contentment? Contentment is the knowledge that we possess all that we need. Discontentment is defined as dissatisfaction. We cannot be thankful if we are dissatisfied. The Apostle Paul said that he had learned the secret of being content in every situation (Phil 4:12).

Psalm 100 is specifically called a psalm for giving thanks. As we read this psalm, we can notice that the focus is on the Lord our God. We are His, not that He is ours. This tells us that we are subject to His will and not that He is subject to our wills. While some may balk at His sovereignty, the psalm goes on to reassure us that we need not fear His control because “the Lord is good and his love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.” His plan for us is ultimately a good one when we love Him and respond to His call and purposes (Rom 8:28).

While the Lord is good and His goodness and love faithfully endure throughout all time, we are sporadic at being good and loving at best and therefore we are not faithful. Because we are not always good, not always loving, and not faithful in every situation how can we be content? Is it not true that much of the world’s problems and even our own are caused by sin?

The Bible teaches that God understands who we are and remembers our character in dealing with us (Psalms 103:14). The Apostle Paul taught, “We are not fit, meaning qualified and sufficient in ability, of ourselves to form personal judgments or to claim or count anything as coming from us, but our power and ability and sufficiency are from God. It is He who has qualified us making us to be fit and worthy and sufficient” (2 Cor 3:5-6). More simply stated, we are flawed creatures in our thinking and actions but God has made us worthy and acceptable in Christ Jesus who died for us. Our worthiness is not based upon our personal goodness or on what we possess; our worthiness is based upon what Christ alone has done.

And so we have found the secret of Paul’s contentment as he stated in his epistle to the Philippians. He said, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Phil 4:11b-13).

The secret to Paul’s contentment was that he possessed Christ in his life and he realized that in Him he could do everything – that is whether it was to be in plenty or in want, or to be well fed or hungry. He found that in Christ Jesus were hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col 2:3).

The Bible makes this statement: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt 6:21). In this new paradigm for giving thanks, I would like us to understand that it is not only WHERE our treasure is, but also WHAT our treasure is that reveals the condition of our hearts. If our treasures are things like wealth, health, family, and possessions do we realize that eventually we shall lose all of these? It is not that these things are not valuable because if they are used to bring God glory they are. But if they are the focus of our desire and the reason for our thanks then dissatisfaction is inevitable because not only do thieves steal and things decay, but our health fades and our families leave us and eventually pass into eternity.

Paul realized this paradigm shift in his own life when he said, “Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ” (Phil 3:7-8). Paul came to the realization that his treasure was Christ Jesus, both knowing Him and possessing Him. Paul tell us in another place, “God has chosen to make known . . . the glorious riches (treasure) of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27).

If we, like Paul, focus our desire and our praise on Christ and all that comes with Him, then it doesn’t matter if we suffer lack or we have this world’s good. We rejoice that our names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20). Like both Moses and Paul we can regard disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt (or this world), because we are looking ahead to our reward (Heb 11:26).

Like Paul, Moses and other Biblical examples, we have to choose to change our perspectives. The Bible tells us that “since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:1-4). This “setting” of our hearts and minds is a purposeful action.

As the old song says, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus . . . and the things of this world will grow strangely dim.” We can be content with what we have if we possess Christ because, God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Heb 13:5).

There is so much more to this paradigm. A Bible study on contentment and giving thanks will help fill in the blanks. This Thanksgiving holyday, be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly (be your treasure) as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. Let us give thanks to the Lord for He is good and His mercy endures forever. In Him we have all that we will ever need.