My pastor recently taught a message where he spoke on the topics of perseverence, hope and overcoming life's hurts....in this message, he used the above scripture reference from the book of Romans. There was no way he could know this, but the whole premsie of his lesson is one of my life's greatest mantras. Nothing, and I do mean nothing, will get me on my "soapbox" quicker than discussing or hearing about God's promise to work all things in life to the benefit of those who love Him and are living out His purpose for their lives!
I've told my children many, many times....(especially those we adopted, as they have already had to survive a great many things), if we will simply allow God to help us learn to trust in and hold onto this one promise from Him, we'll have the art of persevering in life and continuing on in Christ locked up....
In a world where we are promised to have trouble, how then do we face that knowledge head on and without fear and anxiety ruling our hearts? We face it by remembering God's promise to us in Romans 8:28 and by remembering Jesus' own admission that we are to take heart because He has already overcome the world...."I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." John 16:33 NLT
I understand that I run the risk of trivializing this truth in writing about it and it is my sincere hope NOT to do so....as that is the exact opposite of what I'm hoping to portray....I don't mean to make this sound simple....there is absolutely no "easy button" for this life lesson...I will readily admit, that where this particular lesson gets tricky is that it is one which is often learned in hindsight and not foresight...by that I mean, you can "know" this scripture by memory but it's the "living it out", in walking through something hand-in-hand with God, where you actually "learn" it by heart....
Granted, there are some lessons I'd rather learn in theory than by experience...I'm sure most of you would agree with that....but I will also offer, that there are some things which are just too sweet to miss out on....some things that we simply will never see or realize about God and ourselves until we're on the other side of the "something" we would never have chosen to live through had the choice been left up to us.....for each of us that "something" is different, but I beleive that God intends for the end result to be the same.....for us to emerge better and stronger for having walked it out....not bitter and weaker....as those words are not part of God's eternal vocabulary as it relates to His children...yes, better and stronger and just a tad bit more like His Son, Jesus...it's true that we will never attain His perfection, but we can have our minds and thinking renewed and transformed to be more like His....suffering is one aide which often brings about that result and I pray that in the midst of our suffering we will always remember that it also has a very precious promise stamped on it....He shall cause ALL things to work together for good......
