There are a lot of things in our world that our unpleasant,
ugly even. Many of our pains seem to come right out of the dumpster of life. Cancer
is ugly. A cancer diagnosis is tragic. Every
survivor knows this to be true. But when all is said and done can anything good
come from this great tragedy?
Our message at church yesterday beautifully encouraged us with God’s truth on this subject. Romans 8:28.
says “And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God”
Now before you click away from this page with an emphatic “yay,
right”, let me explain…
This text teaches us that our great big God is able, and
WILL rise to the occasion. He promises to make sense out of all the trials of
our lives, even something as ugly and tragic as cancer.
Only He can take our greatest pain, the darkest part of our
lives and make something beautiful out of it.
The greatest blessing God can give us in these hard times is
HIMSELF. Only He can take all the pain
of our lives and turn it into good.
The passage says that ALL things work together for good- that
means everything, ALL our sufferings, are used by God. He doesn’t protect us
from ALL suffering, He doesn’t take it ALL away, but what he does do with ALL
of it is use it for good in our lives. When tough times come we can most assuredly wait with
anticipation to see God do his thing….
Yes,God is WORKING hard to take our pain and make something
beautiful of it. Sometimes we complicate things, and make his work harder with
our self pity . We act as if no one else has any problems. We act as if our
pain is so much more severe than the next guys. We take on the role of the persecuted
rather than working WITH God to accomplish His purposes.
Remember that God is working for our GOOD. But what does he
mean when he says all things work together for GOOD? What does goodness mean?
Is it only materialistic “goodness” ? What is the primary good God wants to
bring to us through our suffering? It’s not a circumstantial good, but a transformational good! He wants to change us into
beings who are more like Him and more able to accomplish spiritual good.
In our difficulties we are gifted with an intimacy with God we might not otherwise know. It seems like the closest people to God are often those who have suffered the most. In pain we run to God, we cling to him.
In our difficulties we are gifted with an intimacy with God we might not otherwise know. It seems like the closest people to God are often those who have suffered the most. In pain we run to God, we cling to him.
Another “goodness’ our pain will provide is character development. Ask yourself “What
character flaw in me is God tweaking through this trial... what is broken in me
that He is fixing through this difficulty...what are God and I working on together in this
hardship?"
Lastly, our pastor explained
that God wants to use our hardship to bring goodness and spiritual change to
others. Every time you are able to smile, and be pleasant, despite your pain,
others will see Christ in you.
God wants us to be dependent on him and our pain forces us
to do just that. When we get to that place of dependency on Him He can then use our pain for good in our lives and in other’s
lives. Our pain gives us a voice that others will listen to because they
I am thankful for the hope my faith brings me, for the comfort God’s Spirit provides and the knowledge that my great big God is more than capable of taking all the ugliness that is cancer and making it into something beautiful in my life. I pray that each of my cancer survivor friends will know His peace, His comfort and His provision. He wants to help you make sense of it all in a perfect way that only He can do.
(for the full sermon go to www.chapel.org
video podcast 8/5/12)
