Making it Better

We're promised lots of good things in Scripture. Love, joy, peace. More than conquerors. The love of God. Grace, salvation, eternal life. Lots of good stuff. We're also promised some unpleasant stuff. The world will hate us. Everyone dies. There will be suffering. Lots of unpleasant stuff. It's all this stuff, however, that makes being a believer so important.

We live in a fallen world where disasters, natural or otherwise, occur often. People die. People suffer. Loved ones get sick. We have our own losses. So we need often to remind ourselves ... of God. We need to remind ourselves of Joseph's words to his brothers. "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Gen 50:20). It's not, you see, simply, "He pulled us through." It's not "This awful thing happened for whatever reason, but we made it." No ... it agrees specifically that it was evil ... and God intended it for good. We need to remind ourselves what Paul says 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" (Rom 8:28). We don't just survive ... we thrive. God makes every pain into an improvement on our lives. We're promised tribulation, distress, persecution, famine ... and we're promised "in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us" (Rom 8:37-39). (See also Romans 5:3-5, 1 Peter 1:6-9, and James 1:2-5). We can see that God can provide comfort in tribulation, but do we recognize that God is in the business of making our suffering a useful tool for making us better?

More than that, do we recognize that He's in the business of making our greatest blessings greater? We can find love in this world, but nothing compares to the love He gives (Psa 103:11; John 15:13; Rom 5:8; Rom 8:38-39; Eph 3:19). We can find joy in this world, but not the joy He gives (Psa 16:11; Neh 8:10; John 15:11.) We might have times of peace in our lives, but not like the peace He gives (John 14:27; Php 4:6-7; Isa 26:3; Col 3:15). He gives us eternal life ... with Him. Better. Just a small sampling. For all the difficulties in life, God makes them better. For all the blessings in life, God makes them better. Go ahead ... muddle through with your own small problems and pleasures. I'll take God's version any day.