All Things for Good

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)

All things for good--
Contingent, of course--
To those who love God,
Who are called
According to His purpose.
All things for good to those who meet
These criteria.
What comfort!
For those who meet these criteria.
And I want to, if I don't.
But I do.
And that overwhelming grace causes me to want
To love God and live a life of obedience,
And to realize how little I do and do,
And grieve in that realization.
When He is working all things for my good,
Why would I not want to do all things according to His will,
Live in line according to His purposes?
Knowing that in the struggle
I am not alone,
Not having to carry on
In my own strength.
There is comfort, encouragement, strengthening, and the increased desire
To do His will.
And I listen, having read,
"Be still and know that I am God."
And I listen, having read,
"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."
And I listen, having read,
"The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; and His song will be with me in the night, a prayer to the God of my life."
And I listen, having read,
"Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken."
And I listen, and I rejoice, and I trust
That He IS working all things together for good--
All visible and all invisible; all temporal and all eternal.

Some Humbling Words

Sometimes the Lord needs to do a humbling work in us as part of our sanctification.

When I started college, I needed to learn 1 Corinthians 1:18-21: "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, 'I WILL DESTROW THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE.' Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe."  You may want to read the rest of the chapter some time.

Later, as I was in the working world, I needed to learn 1 Corinthians 4:7: "For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?"

Then, when Garry and I were going through a difficult time, we found ourselves in James 4:13-15: "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.' Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.'"

During that same period, when my Dad passed away suddenly, we found great comfort in Psalm 46:1-3: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah."

I have rejoiced in Lamentations 3:19-24: "Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the bitterness. Surely my soul remembers and is bowed within me. This I recall to mind, therefore I have hope. The LORD's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail, They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. 'The LORD is my portion,' says my soul, 'Therefore I have hope in Him.'"

Recently I have come back time and again to these promises in Hebrews 12:10b-11: "He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness."

I pray as the psalmist in Psalm 143:10: "Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground."

The Christian and Suffering

We find that suffering comes from many sources and lasts for various periods of time.

We suffer when someone in the church treats us poorly, especially if this is unresolved for any length of time.

We suffer when someone we love dies.

We suffer from chronic pain/ailments.

We suffer when someone we love suffers from chronic, debilitating illnesses with no end or cure in sight.

We suffer from weather events.

We can find comfort from God's Word in these instances: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God" (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

We suffer from our own choices sometimes, and this can bring on God's discipline. Read Hebrews 12:7-11: "It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness."

What about suffering for doing what is right?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said this: "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Matthew 5:10-12).

We see the example Christ set in responding to suffering unjustly, for doing good: "For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly" (1 Peter 2:21-23).

We need to plead with the Holy Spirit to enable us to be like Christ when we find ourselves suffering for doing right.

We need this reminder, too: "For consider Him who has endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart" (Hebrews 12:3).

Current Events and Repentance

My husband and I follow events around the world closely. You could call us "news hounds" for our dogged interest.

As terrorist developments around the world seem to be more frequent and more bloody, my mind was drawn to this passage from Luke 13:

"There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, 'Do you think that those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them; do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish" (vv. 1-5; ESV).

Jesus makes it clear that there is no distinguishing between those who die in noteworthy ways and those who perish in other ways. Both require repentance before they die, or they will experience eternal consequences.

What is this repentance of which Jesus speaks?

True repentance is
A work of God in and on
A dead heart,
Making it alive to
The seriousness of sin and
The grievousness of sin to
A Holy God,
Comprehending consequences which formerly
Escaped it completely,
Begging, then, for merciful grace,
Receiving the same from that same
Holy God, based on
The completed work of Christ--
Awesome for awful.

Recognize that God is altogether holy and you are a sinner; James 2:10: "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all."

Express your need for forgiveness in prayer--the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin; 1 John 1:8-10: "If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and the cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and His word is not in us."

Persevere in Bible study and prayer and fellowship with like-minded persons; 1 Peter 2:1-3: "Therefore putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord"; Hebrews 10:23-25: "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful, and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near."

Examine yourself regularly (2 Corinthians 13:5)--What do you need to deal with as far as sinning each day?

Never forgetting our need for grace and discernment--we'll never outgrow our need for them; 2 Peter 3:17-18: "You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen."

Turning our eyes upon Jesus constantly, continually, continuing to trust and obey, reading and rereading the Scriptures (see Acts 17:11).