“He Is FOR Us!”
“Inmate drew portrait as gift to us!”
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?” (Romans 8:31).
Another common phrase I hear among believers (which is uncommon to the gospel of Jesus and found nowhere in the New testament) is “God is breaking me.” Why would God break His beloved? Again, I get what my brothers and sisters are saying. I’ve used the phrase myself, but would you break a brand new dish you sacrificed everything to purchase? No! But if it broke, you would quickly move to mend it, right?
It’s sin that breaks us; God doesn’t. It’s our own fleshly choices that leave us mentally, emotionally, physically, and sometimes financially broke. It’s the broken world that gives us the only thing it can offer—brokenness. “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:19-21).
No, God’s not breaking His kids; instead, He is providing healing and growth through every trial and mistake, making everything work together for your good…if we let Him. He is for you, not against you. He’s using the brokenness of the world to reveal who you really are, peeling away all that isn’t you.
“For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body”
(1 Corinthians 6:20).
We can blame the devil, our circumstances, the world, ourselves, our parents, our spouse, our kids, whom or whatever, for our present troubles—and all the above are true!—but the truth is, God is working it all together for our good (8:28). He doesn’t cause the problems, but He does cause them to “turn up cats” (always landing on their feet).
God’s two greatest evangelistic and “maturistic” tools on earth are sin and suffering. (Did I just make up another word?) Why do we pray against the very things God uses to bring us to Him? May we learn to say “Amen!” (“So be it”) to each circumstance in life, yielding our judgments to the loving, just, and sovereign Father. He is wisdom because He knows the end from the beginning, and He has become our wisdom (1 Cor. 1:30), so we’d be wise to trust Him.
Next time you’re tempted to hide or hurl accusation for your misfortune; instead, run to Jesus with it. Not much has changed in human nature since Adam and Eve. We still hide in shame and blame or project our flaws on others, but with revelation comes an opportunity to choose again. Simply choose Jesus. As long as you’re coming, His way is working perfectly.
