Mainsville United Brethren in Christ

Growing . . . Together

Does Everything Really Work For Good?

Based on a sermon by Glenn Davis

for original text, click here

            Life is strange.  Everything can be going along just great and then from out of nowhere disaster strikes.  We are knocked down sometimes with a single blow, sometimes with repeated blows which come so quickly we don't have time to react.

Before we know it the problems of life can leave us lying, wounded and bleeding, in the ditch.

            Problems of all sizes and degrees happen to everyone.  Are they just unfortunate things which must be endured or can they work for our good?  In Rom. 8:28 we find a famous verse which a lot of Christians know by heart.  "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" [NAS].  Can all our problems and disasters really work out for the best?  That seems pretty incredible!

            We should note from the beginning, this verse is talking about Christians.

Unbelievers have no claim to this promise until they accept Jesus as the Lord of their lives.  Negative things may work out for good in their lives, especially if faced with a positive attitude, but there is no guarantee.

            Before we examine how this works in our personal lives, let's take a brief look at the lives of some Biblical men and women.  Did God work good out of tragedy in their lives?

            Moses was a man who knew the will of God.  He knew God wanted Israel delivered from slavery, and he knew God had called him to do it.  However, as a young man of 40, he decided to help God and killed an Egyptian.  He ended up fleeing for his life.  So much for his dream of being a great deliverer.  For the next 40 years he was hiding in the wilderness as a shepherd - a job his Egyptian training would have loathed.  Had his over-anxiousness foiled the purposed of God?  Did God bring good out of it?

            We as Christians can suffer from the same problem that Moses did.  We can be extremely ambitious about doing something we think that the Lord would have us to do.  Moses knew that God wanted his people to be delivered from the hands of Pharoah.  We may know that God wants us to talk to a friend about Christ, teach Sunday school, or commit more time to prayer and Bible reading.  None of these things are wrong, but we might go about them in entirely the wrong way. 

            In our zeal for telling a friend about Christ, we may fail to notice that they’re having a horrible day and simply need a friend to listen to.  In an attempt to teach we may realize that we first need to learn more.  Or in our dreams of praying and reading the Bible more, we may set too lofty a goal and become discouraged when we can’t immediately commit ourselves to reading and praying an hour a day.  We need to do things according to God’s plans and in his timetable.  A child needs to walk before they can run.  Moses found that while he had the desire to lead God’s people to freedom, he didn’t have the ability at the time.

            God did not forsake Moses.  Whether Moses knew it or not, he was learning vital lessons in the wilderness.  Moses spent forty years in the desert as a shepherd.  One would think that this was time that could have been better spent in leadership training seminars or law giving classes.  Instead God put Moses in charge of dumb animals that were utterly unable to take care of themselves.  It turns out, God was right because Moses lead a lot of dumb people utterly unable to take care of themselves for another forty years.

            As children we all had dreams of what we wanted to do when we grew up.  In fourth grade, I had dreams of being a paper boy.  Sadly, that dream never came about.  For many of us, life did not turn out the way we thought it would.  We might not have gotten the job we wanted.  You may have not married a beauty queen or a Prince Charming.  Or possibly a tragedy turned your life on end.

            Now imagine that you are a young child in a well to do household with great dreams until one day tragedy strikes and crushes all of those dreams.  Daniel was a young man of royal heritage when war came to his country.  Violently he was torn from his parents, friends, and country.  He was taken to a strange land and placed into servitude.  There he was tempted to compromise his faith time after time while being immersed in a heathen culture.  What would your reaction be?  As a teenager would you have had the strength to stand up for what you believe in?  Or would you be frustrated and angry that God had placed you in such a horrible situation?  What about today – if everything you had today was taken from you, would you have to strength of faith to trust God or would you be angry?

Daniel had every right to be angry.  He wasn’t just born with a silver spoon, he had great wisdom and ability.  What use could a slave make of all his talents?  And yet God worked for the good.  Daniel’s position placed him in the service of the greatest earthly king, King Nebuchadnezzar.  Not only did Daniel have the opportunity to share his faith with the most powerful ruler ever, he also got to be a witness to this man placing his trust in God.  What a privilege! 

Not only did Daniel get to experience such a great joy, God also blessed him by sharing His plan for the ages with him.  Daniel knew about the rise and fall of the Greek and Roman empires centuries before either of them had even come to be.  But more importantly, it was revealed to Daniel that God conquer evil and the He would establish his kingdom forever.  Would Daniel have had these visions if he had remained in his parents’ household?  It is uncertain.  Definitely Daniel’s faith was strengthened because of his hardships in Babylon and it may have only been there that he would be strong enough to share in the visions God had for him.

            A third example is another young man.  This man was given dreams by God early on in his life.  God has told him, in part, what would happen to him.  Shortly after these dreams however, Joseph must have thought God had gone back on his word. 

            Joseph’s brothers were jealous of him and desired to kill him.  But God wouldn’t allow this and instead one of his brothers suggested selling him as a slave instead.  Separated from his family and sold into slavery, it immediately would appear that Joseph must have gotten the wrong message from God.

            We too have difficulty in believing that God will do as he promised.  Perhaps when you became a Christian, you thought that all your troubles would be solved now that you had God on your side.  If you thought that before, you’ve probably come to realize that life isn’t any easier as a Christian.  So has God failed on his promises?

            Jesus said, “Come to me all who are weak and weary, and I will give you rest.”  But do we still get weak and weary?  God has said that he would provide for our every need, so why are we struggling to pay our bills each month?  Why do sinners prosper and God doesn’t appear to be judging the wicked?

            At times it is our concept of God that is our trouble and it has nothing to do with God failing to keep up on his promises.  We are given rest, but it is from the punishment of our sins.  Our needs will be provided for, but do we REALLY need cable TV or that new car?  And certainly, God has not turned a blind eye to sin, He is just more patient than we are, waiting for sinners to turn their lives over to Him.

            Joseph didn’t misunderstand the promise, but he simply had to endure a lot of suffering & years in jail before God would make good on his promise.  In the end, not only did Joseph’s dreams come true, God used him to save a nation from starvation, and even his own family.

            When we come face-to-face with the problems, disasters, and tragedies of life, we need to remember God IS in control.  Our lives are in His hand.  If we are walking in fellowship with Him, then nothing can touch us unless it is allowed by God for our good.

            God does not rescue us from the 'facts of life'.  We face the same problems everyone else faces plus  the fact that the Satanic realm would love to get its grimy paws on us.  Even when evil people deliberately hurt us, God is still in control.  He doesn't always stop it but He takes what they mean for our harm and turns it around for our benefit.

            Joseph said to his brothers in Ge. 50:20:  "And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive" [NAS].  Notice, they pre-mediated evil against Joseph and God allowed them to carry out their plans.  But God took their plans, turned them around, and worked good out of it.  Even when we find ourselves victims of people who are out to hurt us in every possible way, God will take their plans and work them out to our benefit.

            Sometimes what we see as a defeat is actually a victory.  We need to remember the spiritual realm is more important and permanent than the physical realm.  If we can face problems and tragedies and not be shaken in our faith in the goodness of God, we have won a major victory.  As was in the case of Daniel it may have only been the hardships he faced in Babylon that allowed his faith to be strengthened so much.  Would you be challenged to stretch your faith if life gave you everything you wanted?

            Does this mean we enjoy our troubles?  Not really.  We can rejoice at the good we know will come of it, but when something hurts, it hurts!  This is tough to swallow at times.  At some of my most frustrated times in life, I really got sick of people telling me that it was all going to work out for the best.  Regardless of what the future held, I still had to deal with the frustration of what life had dealt me at that moment that I had no idea how to handle.

We don't like the problems or tragedies of life, but we face them knowing God is on our side and we will come out on the top in the end.  We may have to wait until heaven before we understand how it worked for good.  In other cases, we can look back at all of the valleys of our life and see how they worked out for the best.  I can personally look back at a series of events, going back several years that eventually lead me to this pulpit today.  This church is what I get as result of persevering through several years of frustration.  So you can see how it worked out for me. 

Some Christians have become afraid of making a "negative confession" and so are afraid to admit when they are hurting.  There is no point in denying when unpleasant things happen to us.  Denying something doesn't change it.  We can be free to admit when we are hurting and receive help and encouragement from others.  No one said we had to go it alone.  It is important that we remember even when we are hurting that in some way, God will work good.  That is trust.  That is realizing that pain has purpose - it is not wasted.  Trust doesn't happen overnight.  It is built one brick at a time.

            Another point of confusion is that when something bad happens, do I thank God or rebuke the Devil?  As stated above, when we walk with God, everything which happens is allowed by God for our good and His glory.  We have to start with this premise.  Even though the Devil himself may be throwing all that he has at us, it is God who is allowing it.  And God can only have our best interest at heart, even when he allows such things.  So don’t blame the Devil, thank God for your troubles.

Do we then passively accept everything that happens to us?  After all, if God allowed it then we should just mildly bear it for Him, right?  Wrong!  Nothing could be further from the truth.  We start with the realization this negative experience is allowed by God for our good.  It is going to be, if we handle it properly, a growing experience.  God allowed David to face Goliath but if David had sat down and passively accepted it, he would have been killed.  Goliath was permitted by God to enter David's life but David had to rise up and in the Spirit of God conquer him.

            Just because God allowed something into our lives doesn't mean He wants us to stand by and be crushed by it.  If we properly handle difficult situations we will come out better on the other side.  Also, there is nothing wrong about talking to God about it.  Paul did this with his "thorn in the flesh".  Jesus pleaded in the garden to escape the torment He knew was coming.  In both these cases God had to answer "no" to their requests and they went on to face what was set before them.  But sometimes, when we come before Him, God will answer "yes".  It is certainly NOT a sin to ask Him.  We have to be willing to accept the answer whatever it may be.

            From the beginning we have said that if we are walking with God, then God allows everything that happens to us and He will work good out of it.  What if we are walking in a way that is not pleasing to God?  Will He still work good out of it?  All of this depends on your reaction to it.  If a tragedy falls upon someone who is not walking with the Lord, they can either turn to God and look for deliverance or they can wallow in self pity and blame God for their predicament.  Obviously, the good that God wanted to see come out of this tragedy is the person straightening out their lives.  However, God gave us free will and we can choose to ignore God’s wake up call.

            One of the many kinds of problems we face is sickness.  Sickness can illustrate many of the points we have made.  If we become sick, as we are walking with God, we know God allowed it.  We know it is not the general will of God for His people to be sick.  So how do we handle it?  First, we look for any obvious reasons God may have allowed it.  Is it a result of sin?  If we search our lives and find that it is, then we need to repent.  If we find it is not a result of sin, then was the sickness allowed because we are not taking proper care of our bodies?  Are we eating properly, getting enough sleep, etc.?  Are we allowing our emotions to tear at our bodies through fear, worry, etc.?  If so, then we need to get Godly counsel on how to change these destructive life patterns.  In the above cases, when we change God may remove the sickness, or He may allow us to work out the consequences of our actions.        In some cases though, sickness does not come because of sin or mistreating the body.  It comes as a Goliath which must be defeated.  We fight this giant through faith in the goodness of God, prayer for healing, going to the doctor, taking medicine, etc.  In short, we use whatever means God has placed at our disposal.  Whatever the results may be, as we meet it in the power of God, God will take it and turn it around for good.  All this can be applied to any specific problem.

            We do serve a good God.  It is our unswerving faith in the goodness of God which will pull us through experiences which would crush others.  God is in control and He never loses control.  We cannot see the future but God has plans for it as surely as His will is done in the present as was in the past.  As we face the problems and difficulties of life in the Spirit of God we will be gaining eternal benefits.

            I will close with Paul’s words to the Corinthians from 2 Corinthians 4:16-17.  “Therefore we do no lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”

            God does work for the good.  Are troubles our only momentary.  The glory that we look forward to is eternal.