All Things Work Together for Good
If you haven’t noticed that we live in a negative world, you just haven’t been paying attention, or you live in a cave….there are forces that want to devour you and destroy your peace and wipe out your faith….even though you’re just minding your own business….
A lot of negative influences have been in our faces, during the last few months of the presidential campaign. Each party has spent millions painting a picture of the worst possible scenarios for Americans if their lying, unpredictable, deceiving, hypocritical opponent is elected. Not nearly as much has been spent expressing hope and encouragement.
Then, on top of that, you add other things folks are dealing with like sickness, the loss of a job, marriage problems, or the break down of law and order, and you can see where, over time, the pressures of the world, if allowed, can steal the hope, the love and the joy from your life. It only takes a dose of the wrong thing to ruin the whole thing! We can let the actions of others spoil our own joy and peace….
Mrs. Smartt was fumbling in her purse for her offering when a large television remote fell out and clattered into the aisle. The curious usher bent over to retrieve it for her and whispered, “Do you always carry your TV remote to church?” “Oh No,” she replied, “but my husband refused to come to church with me this morning, and I figured this was the best way I could legally get that rascal to be sorry about it.”
In Matthew 24:12, Jesus said this: “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” He said this would be a characteristic of the end times. He was saying that the negative things going on around us, not necessarily in us, would cause the love of many to grow cold.
The word “waxed” which is used in this scripture is very significant and descriptive. It goes back to the way candles are made. A wick is dipped into hot wax and then taken out and allowed to cool for a few seconds, leaving a thin layer of wax. The process is repeated hundreds of times until layer upon layer of wax imbeds the wick deep within it.
The same is true with the heart. If we take our eyes off Jesus and focus on the trouble and uncertainty in the world and our circumstances, then, little by little, the layers of negativity like wax, harden around our hearts, and the love for God and for others diminishes and soon “waxes cold”.
Most of us could quote Romans 8:28 from memory, which says “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.” So what about that?
A man feels the called of God to go into the ministry. He leaves his good job and moves to a distant city to enter seminary. His wife takes a job to help him make it through his schooling. He’s in his last year now. In just a few months he’ll take a church somewhere and begin serving the Lord. But one day his wife comes in and says, “I’m leaving you. I don’t want to be a pastor’s wife.” She walks out and never comes back. Does he still quote Romans 8:28 with the same fervor and zeal?
She was a seemingly healthy and vibrant 12-year-old girl who suddenly developed severe migraine headaches. On Friday she is taken to the hospital, on Saturday she passes away. Everyone is in shock that she’s gone so suddenly at such an early age in life. Her father has always called her “the sunshine of his life.”…. and now she’s gone….Can he still quote Romans 8:28 with the faith and passion he had before?
In 1 Samuel, we read the story of a terrible situation that David was facing. His father-in-law, Saul, was trying to kill him. He had been running for his life and hiding every day for thirteen years. His possessions had been burned, his family and all of the wives and children of his men had been taken by their worst enemy and his own men wanted to stone him for being a poor leader. Not a great environment! it says in
1 Samuel 30:6, “David was greatly distressed; for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God”.
Things looked bleak. David was in a situation where everything in the natural said “Be discouraged and dismayed,” but David encouraged himself in the Lord and it was only a matter of weeks until all God had promised him came to pass and he became king of Judah. If he had given in and quit in that terrible time, he would have lost it all.
I’m also thinking of Peter, when Jesus asked him to step out of the boat and come to him on the water….But as soon as Peter got his eyes off Jesus and looked at the stormy sea, he began to sink. He was walking “in” the water but not “on” the water! The key to what happened when he sank was that his focus changed. Instead of focusing on the promise of Jesus, and His command to come—Peter focused on the circumstances, and that’s why he began to sink. Now think about this—if the sea had been perfectly calm and the boat wasn’t about to sink, Peter would never have been part of this miracle and he couldn’t have walked on the water. Jesus’ plan for Peter was greater than Peter’s doubt and his situation and Jesus reached out and pulled him up. He saw God’s heart for Peter, not Peter’s mistakes, his flaws or his sins…
Isaiah 26:3 “the Lord will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed (fixed, established) upon Him because he puts his trust in the Lord”. It’s God’s plan that we stand and having done all to stand……
I see a lot of people today who stand for a period of time and then quit. It’s like there is a shelf life, or expiration date, on how long they’re going to believe God.
You might be thinking, Well, how long am I supposed to stand? The answer is simple. You stand on the Word of God and His promises not when you see it, but until you see it working in your life. Don’t quit! When you’re down to nothing, God is up to something!!
Unless you have a deliberate plan to encourage yourself in the Lord, you are going to end up covered by the negative wax of the world around you. I challenge you to have an encouragement plan!........ I’m telling you… unless you have a deliberate plan to encourage yourself in the Lord, you aren’t going to be fixed and established when the water gets high….
Like the song says…. “Sail on when the wind starts to rise, sail on, when the water gets high, sail on….it’s just a matter of minutes till the ship comes to get us and we’ll all get in it” We need an encouragement plan, when things don’t turn out the way we planned…..
God doesn’t always answer our prayers the way we would like for Him to answer. You know what I mean, I’m talking about those times when the answer you got looks more like another problem, than an answer! Someone said, “Why is it that God’s answers usually become my next prayer request”?
How do we keep hope alive when life itself seems to have taken a wrong turn and left us standing up against a wall scratching our head? What if all that we hold dear is suddenly snatched away, if all the familiar landmarks are removed, if our friends desert us, if our job is gone, if our health disappears, if death comes unwelcomed to our door. These things have happened and do happen. What then?
Over and over again, when the children of Israel found themselves in a terrible spot, when they were outnumbered and overwhelmed, when they had no hope, God intervened. He came through for them again and again and again.
It happened when Moses led them out of Egypt.
It happened when God sustained them for 40 years in the wilderness.
It happened when they crossed the Jordan River.
It happened when the walls of Jericho came tumblin’ down.
It happened when Gideon defeated the Midianites.
It happened when Samson defeated the Philistines.
It happened when Elijah defeated the prophets of Baal.
It happened when David defeated Goliath.
But during the process leading up to these great miracles, the things that got them there, weren’t exactly the way they would have planned.
Little Josh had experienced his first day at Children’s church. He said “Dad, I want to ask you a question,” “Of course,” said his Dad. “The teacher was reading the Bible, about the Children of Israel building the Temple, the Children of Israel crossing the Red Sea, and the Children of Israel making the sacrifices,”. “So what’s your question?” his Dad asked. “Well, said Josh, in all that time, the children did everything, didn’t the grown-ups do anything?!”
As we live our lives, we are like ants crawling across a priceless masterpiece painted by Rembrandt. We crawl across the dark brown and think all of life is dark brown. Then we hit green and think, ‘”Oh, this is better. Now all is green.” But soon comes the dark blue and then a splash of yellow, a streak of red, and then another patch of brown. On we journey, from one color to another, never realizing that God is actually painting a masterpiece with our lives using all the colors that are on his limitless palette.
One day we will learn that every color had its place, had a reason, no stroke of the divine brush was wasted or out of place. Just as there is a time and a season for everything, there is also a color for every stage of life’s journey. When the painting is finished, we will discover that we were part of His masterpiece from the very beginning. Time is the canvas on which God does his painting, and eternity is the perspective from which we will see the full beauty of His handiwork.
“In order to continue to grow and develop, in the plan of God for your life, you must be willing to sacrifice what you are now for what you can become tomorrow.”
Hudson Taylor founded the China Inland Mission to reach the multitudes of Chinese people who had never heard the gospel. During the terrible days of the Boxer Rebellion (1900-1901), when missionaries were being captured and killed. He went through such an agony of soul that he could not pray. Writing in his journal, he summarized his spiritual condition this way: “I can’t read. I can’t think. I can’t pray. But I can trust.” There will be times when we can’t read the Bible. Sometimes we won’t be able to focus our thoughts on God at all. Often we will not even be able to pray. But in those moments when we can’t do anything else, we can still trust in the greater, all encompassing plan of our heavenly Father.
Oh yes, we need an encouragement plan, when things don’t turn out the way we planned…..
The words of Romans tell us “God works all things for good” ….that’s not saying all our pumpkins will turn into royal carriages, and the rats of life will all turn into white stallion carriage horses…and the glass slipper we lost will be what makes us the queen of the kingdom….
The Bible never asks us to pretend that tragedy isn’t tragedy or to pretend that our pain isn’t real. The point is, we must trust the active involvement of God. Whatever happens to you and to me is not fate or kismet or karma or luck. But God is actively at work in all of the areas of our lives! And yes, He really is waiting with your glass slipper!!! But we need to let go of what is to receive what is not yet!
We need to be like the mom who was trying to convince her little boy to let go of his money and put it in the offering plate… Timmy didn’t want to put in his money, so his mother decided to use some spur of the moment creative reasoning with him. “You don’t want that money, honey,” she whispered in his ear. “Quick! Drop it in the plate. It’s tainted!” Quickly, the little boy obeyed and dropped it in the offering plate.
After a few seconds he whispered, “But, mommy, why was the money tainted? Was it dirty? “Oh, no dear,” the mom replied. “It’s not really dirty. It just ‘taint yours, and it ‘taint mine,” she replied. “It’s God’s.” Have we given it all to God, then He has a right to do with it as He pleases!
Suppose you have an accident and wreck your car. And suppose when you take it into the body shop, the man says, “Friend, you haven’t had an accident. Your car has just been rearranged.” So you turn and look at the cracked grille, the crumpled fender, the twisted bumper, and the shattered windshield. Then you say, “Buddy, you’re out of your blooming mind. This car isn’t rearranged. This car is wrecked.”
Is Paul saying, “Whatever happens is good"? No. What he is saying is that God has put a sign over our lives and that sign says “This life is under construction and the general contractor is God Almighty!!!!
The bible truth, that “all things work together for good” means that we can’t judge everything that’s going to happen by what is happening to us at this moment….
The phrase (work together) is really one word- “sunergon”, in Greek. We get our English word synergy from it. And what is synergy? It is what happens when you put two or more elements together to form something brand new that neither could form separately.
It’s what happens when my wife goes into the kitchen and makes a big pot of “Sugar babe’s Stew”. She puts in the potatoes, the carrots, the celery, the onions, the spices, the meat, and a few other secret ingredients I know nothing about. What comes out is the best stew I’ve ever had. Now each of these ingredients by themselves wouldn’t knock your socks off, but when synergized in “Sugar Babes Stew” they combine with all those other ingredients to produce a TUMMY full of delight.
That’s synergy….the combination of many elements to produce something new that could not have happened with any one of those elements. In our lives, so many of the things that make no sense when seen in isolation are in fact working together to produce something brand new that couldn’t have happened with any one thing.
Paul is saying that our experience is like that.
God begins with the raw materials of life, including some parts that seem to serve no good purpose. Those materials are acted upon by pressure and heat and then are blended together. Over time something beautiful is created. Not by accident, but by a divine design. And nothing is wasted in the process.
Paul says that “God works all things together for good.” But what is the “good” he is talking about? For most of us, “good” equals things like health, happiness, solid relationships, long life, money, food on the table, meaningful work, and a nice place to live. In general, we think the “good” life means a better set of circumstances.
God’s main focus is not making you happy and successful and giving you everything you ever dreamed. He is committed to making you like his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And whatever it takes to make you more like Jesus is GOOD!!. It is to this end that He never gives up on us….
There’s a poem that says…..I walked a mile with Pleasure, Desire led most of the way. But I was none the wiser, For all they had to say. Then I walked a mile with God,
And very little said He. But, oh, the lessons I did learn, When God walked with me.
God is at work in your life and right now, there are a lot of rough and uncut areas, and God is patiently chipping away at you. But remember this: He will never hurt you intentionally or do anything that is not good for you!!. But He will not quit until, when He is done, you look like His son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We know this as we get to know God more and more.
I want to read a letter from a prisoner….. “Dear sir, I have some “Good News” and some “Not so Good News” that I would like to share with you. First, the “not so Good News.” This is not my first time, second time, or my fifth time, but somewhere around my tenth time that I have been locked up at the “County Jail.” I was released with two years of parole. A year went by, and I again was arrested and charged with burglary. So here I am, charged with burglary, on parole for burglary, and my entire life is the result of burglary. I am sure you would say to me that I need to change “careers.” I am looking at 6 to 30 years of prison time.
Now the “Good News.” My cellmate, Robert, offered a Christian book for me to read. I have read it from front to back. I have heard the “knock on the door,” I have “gone to the door,” and “I have finally opened it.” I HAVE LET CHRIST INTO MY HEART.
I wake to a morning prayer, and end my day with prayer. I know I will be distracted by the devil, and conflicts will arise most likely when everything is going smooth.
I truly believe this book will have great impact on the rest of my life as long as I continue to “open the door” and let Christ in every day. I believe I will then never, ever have to be locked up physically or spiritually again.
He signed the letter “A grateful recovering alcohol, drug and burglary addict.” Then he added this P.S: “I have thanked Jesus. I believe it is time to thank my cellmate, Robert."
Going to prison is not “good” in the usual sense of the word, but when it is synergized like the ingredients in “Sugar Babes Stew”, it can produce a new thing that God calls “Good”….
When it comes to how God takes all the experiences of our lives and turns them into something Good…..you don’t have to be able to explain the unexplainable, You just need to trust the one whose working it all out as only He can!
Sometimes the best thing we can do is get away from it all so we can look at it from a different perspective….Jesus got alone and away from the crowd in the Garden, He ended each day there as he allowed the Father to get Him reset for the coming day of ministry…..
When someone asks, “where was God when my child died”….. the answer is that He’s in the same place as He was when His child died on a cross….But only He could see, that what looked like the end was a glorious new beginning.
We might ask “Where was God when my child suffered, unjustly”…The answer to that is, He’s in the same place He was when His child took the insults, the beating, the nails, so that a stream of healing and forgiveness could be opened for us all!
Hear God as He speaks to us now from Isaiah 55:6 “Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. v7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. v8 For my (God) thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the LORD. v9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. v10 As the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not in the same form, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, v11 So shall my word be that goes forth out of My mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing that I sent it to do”.
