July 31, 2021 (Saturday)
A popular expression a while back was, “It’s all good.” Originating in a rap “song,” it became part of the vernacular of a generation of people who have been exposed to so much bad news that they find the expression comforting.
Romans 8:28, “All things work together for good to those who love God,” is a similar expression, but very different. It’s different because it does not say that everything is good. A better translation of the words of the verse emphasizes the teaching that God is working with good things and bad things, but he is working out His own great plan through it all. We Christians want to be like Jesus; God is at work in the hearts and lives of those who love Him, using each event in our lives as a means of molding us in the image of His Son.
In our walk with Christ, we climb mountains and descend into valleys, and He is with us every step of the way. Some of those valleys are deep and dark, very painful, and places of fear, but He holds our hand, and we walk together. The happy and joyous experiences of life strengthen our faith, but so do the bitter experiences, if our hearts are in tune with the Lord and we are walking with Him, “in the Spirit.”
We can’t say, “It’s all good,” but we can say with full assurance, “He is good.” God is good. He answers prayer. He walks with us. He leads us. He moves in our hearts. He loves through us. He comforts us. He strengthens us. He dispels our fears. He gives us faith. He is good. Over a period of time, as we learn that life is always changing, we come to realize that His work in us is making us more like Jesus.
If you get to feeling sometimes like God has left you “high and dry,” read Romans 8 again. It won’t make everything “good,” but it will help you to see that God, in His own way, is at work in your life. And that’s good.
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HE LEADETH ME
J. H. Gilmore
1859
He leadeth me: O blessed thought!
O words with heavenly comfort fraught!
Whate’er I do, where’er I be,
still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me.
Refrain:
He leadeth me, he leadeth me;
by his own hand he leadeth me:
his faithful follower I would be,
for by his hand he leadeth me.
Sometimes mid scenes of deepest gloom,
sometimes where Eden’s flowers bloom,
by waters calm, o’er troubled sea,
still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me.
Refrain
Lord, I would clasp thy hand in mine,
nor ever murmur nor repine;
content, whatever lot I see,
since ’tis my God that leadeth me.
Refrain
And when my task on earth is done,
when, by thy grace, the victory’s won,
e’en death’s cold wave I will not flee,
since God through Jordan leadeth me.
Refrain