The Mystery of Turning Bad into Good

 

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” – Romans 8:28

This is one of those verses that can make your head spin in light of events in your life that are for all intents and purposes not good at the time they happen.  How can God use the death of a young child for good?  How can God turn the murder of innocent people into something good?  How can being diagnosed with cancer become something good?

I’ve been through a few of these types of events both personally and through friends and family.  What I can tell you is that the one good I have seen come from them is in our relationship with God.  It’s in those lowest of lows that we experience that we learn that we can only trust in God to turn the situation around.  It’s in a situation that you cannot change that you have no choice but to trust that God is still God, almighty, in all authority, and allowing things that may not appear as good in order to achieve something greater.

The story of Job comes to mind.  If you read the book you find that Job did have plenty of questions as to why God allowed him to lose all his children, all his livestock, and to even be given a horrible disease of boils all over his body.  His own wife lost faith in God, which only made his experiences in that valley even harder.  She was the one love he had left, and she wanted him to just curse God and die.  While she may have spoken those words out of compassion for his suffering, and thinking he would no longer be in pain, the fact is, she gave up on God.  When two become one, and one does not have the faith to stand in the valley, things become harder for the one that does.  Job endured a lot.  And in the end God blessed his perseverance and the fact that even though he questioned God, he never stopped honoring God. 

Trusting God in the valley is a faith growing experience.  But it can be that season of winter when all the sap in that tree of faith dries up, and you just have to hang on for spring.  Just do that.  Hang on. 

This song by Lauren Daigle has become one of my favorites.  She sings about this very thing.  When we don’t get our way, when our prayers are not answered the way we want, we just trust in God with all we have to offer Him.  That is loyalty.  That is obedience.  That is faith.