“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6 (NIV)
I read a Facebook post the other day that saddened me. A woman was responding to a stranger who tried to encourage that good can come from evil. The woman’s belief was that there wasn’t someone or something in the universe that guaranteed that happening. The person was deeply sad because she didn’t feel any hope that good could come from all the bad that she had been experiencing for years now.
I think this resonated with me so deeply because during the fall of 2016 I also struggled with that same lie, despite the fact I’ve been a Christ follower for almost 40 years now and have been taught the truth for years. While I knew the biblical answer in my head, how God is love and wants the best for His children, sometimes here on earth, we don’t always see the best. I had an honest, heart-to-heart talk with God one morning while driving in the car alone. I asked my Father if I had been chosen to be the fall guy in my life’s circumstances. If, in order for everyone else around me to succeed, I was the one who was designated the ultimate loser.
It’s been 12 months since I had that conversation with God and I can still feel the emotions I had that morning, as I resigned myself to the fact that sometimes, despite all my faith and belief in His promises, maybe I was simply wrong and those promises weren’t meant for me after all. I wasn’t one of the chosen and therefore, I was relegated to where I was in life and things weren’t going to get better. Those feelings of despondence were a huge pack of lies directly from the evil one himself.
However, God being God, with His loving nature, took the time to woo me, to show me that none of His children are casualties of the war of sin on earth… that He was indeed working all things together for good, not because I deserved it more than anyone else, but simply because of His grace. I was His child and I could trust Him.
However, having said that, I need to explain a little more that sometimes, the good that comes from evil doesn’t look like what we pictured or imagined it would. That is where one needs to learn to see from the faith perspective. During these 12 months that God has been reminding me of His unconditional love, inviting me to continue to trust Him and believe His promises from the Bible, I have seen many examples that would look to others as evil winning and good not showing up. During this past year a friend of mine lost his battle with ALS. He is only three years older than me and leaves behind a wife and two young daughters.
This December is the anniversary of the heavenly homecoming of a boy who lost his battle with cancer here on earth, gone too soon. Another family from our church is dealing with continuing heart issues in their 1-year-old along with other medical issues in other members of the family.
On the surface, it would look like evil is winning, but that’s why we need to look a little closer, dig a little deeper as Christ followers choose to see through the perspective of faith. While my friend lost his battle here on earth to sickness, he’s in Heaven with no pain waiting to be reunited with those he loves who also have a personal relationship with Christ. We are the ones who mourn his loss, but I believe he has been greeted by God Himself with “well done, my good and faithful servant.”
The reality is, God views circumstances very differently than we do. Come back tomorrow as I continue this discussion about what God really promises.
© Cheri Swalwell 2018