God Doesn't Waste Your Pain

August 2, 2023

God brings good out of bad. He's the only one who can do that. He

brings good out of evil. He has a way of turning things around. The

stuff that happens to you, it's not all good. There's a lot of bad stuff

that happens to you, but God says, "I can turn it around. I can

transform it. I can bring good out of evil.” 

God can turn our hurts into holiness. He can use pain to make us more like Jesus. 

One of the most famous verses in the Bible is Romans 8:28.

We keep coming back to this verse. Why? Because we keep getting hurt.

We have guilt, we have grief, and we have grudges and so we need to

understand that God says, "Yes, I know that happened, but I can bring

good even out of that." 

Romans 8:28 And

we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of

those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

Let me stop right there. This is not a promise for everybody. It's a

promise for those who love him and have been called according to his

purpose. We know that not everything that happens to you is good. Can

God take the bad things people do to me, to do against me, and use them

for good? Yes. Can God even take my own sins and bring good out of them,

my own mistakes and bring good out of them? Yes. Can God take my own

weaknesses and my damaged will and my damaged mind and my damaged heart,

my emotions and the way I think, can God work even in that for good?

Yes. He turns my hurts into holiness.

Now, Romans 8:28 is a wonderful promise, but it makes no sense at all unless you read Romans 8:29,

the verse right underneath it which explains why God uses everything

for his purpose. What is his purpose? His purpose is to build our

character. He uses the conflicts and the crises to change our character.

He wants to make us like Jesus. 

Romans 8:29 For

God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his

Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and

sisters.

God wants a family for eternity. God wants you to be his child. He

sent Jesus to show what a child of God is like. You want to know what

God wants you to become like? Look at the character of Christ. God is

far more interested in our character than he is in our comfort. This

life is preparation for the next. In heaven, there's no sorrow, there's

no suffering, there's no sickness, there's no sadness, there's no people

throwing arrows and barbs at you. 

When we go through tough times, we should never ask, "Why is this happening?" I'll tell you why. Romans 8:29,

to make us like Jesus. The question we should ask anytime we go through

any difficult time is "What? What do you want to teach me, God? What

character development do you want me to grow like?” 

God is far more interested in our character, what we're becoming,

than he is in our comfort. Yes, God wants us to be comfortable, but he's

not going to give us comfort at the expense of character. 

We're going to be comfortable for endless years in heaven. Right now, he wants us to become like Christ. 

And,

often, it's our biggest hurts and pains that turn into our biggest

ministries in life. God can create good out of your hurt, if you allow

him to heal you and allow him to use it to transform you so that one day

you can help others.