Many a time, when things aren’t going great, we tend to affirm to ourselves the scripture, “all things are working together for my good”. And we often say it in the future sense of it—that is, things aren’t good for me right now, but they will eventually come good.
It is then frustrating (understandably so) when it takes forever and a day for things to “come good”. For some, faith is shaken if/when the “good” never comes.
I posit that navigating these kinds of disappointments gets a bit easier when we realize that what we think is “good” for us might not be what God decides is good for us.
Remember Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane? And how he prayed for the cup of suffering to pass over Him?
Any of us would have prayed that prayer. Because why not?
A good life lived in total obedience to God up until that point. It only made sense that the “good’ thing to happen, if death were absolutely necessary, was to die a peaceful death—not a shameful drawn out one, right?
“But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.”
1 Corinthians 2:7-8 (NKJV)
From the “foundation of the world”, God set in motion a master plan to restore humanity’s standing with Himself. The picture is so big, that its full scale is only appreciable if looked at from an eternal standpoint.
And as man is quite marooned to this plane bound by time, space, and matter, there’s only so much we can see when we attempt to look into the future.
The crucifixion of Jesus became more than the death of one righteous man: it opened the door for many more “sons” to come into glory; into righteousness. When, initially, darkness had one light to contend against, it now has billions of burning and shining lights to deal with—the hidden wisdom of God!
So you see, what was “good” for Jesus (and for us), was for Him to die the way He did.
If you’re a child of God, you must realize that the wisdom of God is what’s charting your course. If despite walking in total obedience and according to God’s plan, things still seem crazy tight for you, remember that God’s plan is GOOD for you even if it doesn’t feel that way right now.
“Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.”
Romans 8:26-28 (MSG)
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