{"id":12760,"date":"2026-05-10T20:24:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T20:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/?page_id=12760"},"modified":"2026-05-10T20:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T20:27:08","slug":"ishmaels-2-wednesday-may-13-2026","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/ishmaels-2-wednesday-may-13-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Ishmaels (2) &#8211; Wednesday, May 13, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\">And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose\u00a0\u2013 <span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Romans 8:28<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Ishmaels are those moments when clarity becomes obscured by desperation, delays, and panic, and the single option seems the only right option.\u00a0 It is followed by an emotional hangover of regret and future concerns, until a comforting voice assures that Ishmaels are factored into God\u2019s plan of grace and mercy, where nothing is wasted.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In Bishop TD Jakes&#8217;s &#8220;Nothing Just Happens,\u201d he describes that God\u2019s plans are irrevocable, regardless of personal mistakes or malicious acts by others. This is perfectly demonstrated by what Joseph experienced at the hands of his brothers and eloquently explained to them:\u00a0 \u201cBut as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive\u201d (Genesis 50:20).<\/p>\n<p>While Ishmaels may stem from unsound and hasty decisions or wrongful acts by others, they don\u2019t have the power to thwart God\u2019s divine plan. \u00a0We can be assured that no matter where we are in life, we don\u2019t have to live in a state of regret. \u00a0But we can instead trust Romans 8:28 in \u201call things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose\u00a0\u2013 Romans 8:28 Ishmaels are those moments when clarity becomes obscured by desperation, delays, and panic, and the single option seems the only right option.\u00a0 It is followed by an emotional &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/ishmaels-2-wednesday-may-13-2026\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Ishmaels (2) &#8211; Wednesday, May 13, 2026&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12760","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12760"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12763,"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12760\/revisions\/12763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}