God Uses All Things

Even though you are temporarily harassed by all kinds of trials . . . This is no accident—it happens to prove your faith, which is infinitely more valuable than gold” (1 Peter 1:6-7 PHILLIPS).

Although it may seem so, life is not a series of random, freak accidents. Life is not totally unplanned. Life has meaning. God knows what is going on.

God is weaving the tapestry of our lives and it includes different kinds of threads with some light and some dark threads. There are happy times and sad times. These varying threads produce richness, and texture and color.

Nothing can come into our life without God’s permission. All things go thru God the Father-filter. Now, this does not mean that all things that happen in life is God’s perfect will. If we go out and sin, that is not in His will. If someone sins against us, that is not His perfect will.

But God has a permissive will.

If I go out and eat too much, I pay the price both in $$ and consequence. We wreck our bodies, there is consequences. God does not cause evil or suffering. But those things are allowed as they have purpose. He permits them, and then USES them. God is the all-time world and universe champion at bringing good out of bad:

HE LET PAUL GO TO PRISON IN PHILIPPI WHERE IN ALL OF THAT THE JAILER BECAME A

BELIEVER

HE COULD HAVE KEPT JESUS FROM THE CROSS BUT HE LET HIM GO TO THE CROSS

HE LET HIM SUFFER AND DIE…..BUT WE KNOW ALL THE GOOD THAT CAME FROM THAT.

God turns crucifixions into resurrections.

The things we want removed from our life, are the things He uses to shape us and make us into the believer He wants us to be. He wants to and will use that problem for good in our life.

There is something more important than our pain, and that is what we are learning from that pain: AND THAT IS …GOD IS IN CONTROL.

So how can we respond to painful or difficulty situations? The apostle Paul says, “Never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17 NLT).