GOOD RESULTS FROM BAD CIRCUMSTANCES
--Romans 8:28-30
During my quiet time a few days ago God revealed to me that I had never preached on Romans 8:28, my favorite verse of Scripture: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” That became my favorite verse on March 12, 1965, at the age of seventeen. My pastor The Rev. Eugene Black presented me with the book YOUTH SEEKS A MASTER by Louis H. Evans from the Methodist Men of my home Church Marion Aldersgate Methodist. He inscribed this verse on the presentation page.
What led to this special gift, specifically the gift of the Scriptural promise more than Evans’ book? It all stems from the event that happened to four of my friends, one of their Mothers, and me on the evening of Saturday, February 27, 1965. All these friends were Southern Baptists, but we were all part of Christian organizations in Marion High School including the Bible Club. At least two of them had felt God’s call to enter full time Christian Service.
Before my freshman year in high school I began hearing God’s call on my life as well. Back then we didn’t call it “The Call to Ministry.” It was “The Call to Preach,” the last thing in the world I wanted to do although I wanted to be a good Christian that always had the assurance I would go to heaven. God and I had battled over His Call on my life for two-and-one-half years. I wanted instead to be a music teacher and had actually made the decision to major in music about two months before graduating from the eighth grade, but three months later the Holy Spirit began to reveal He had other plans for me. I did not want to listen to Him and continued to plead and argue like Moses at the burning bush, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it” (Exodus 4:13). In my heart I knew beyond all doubt that I would never have peace with God until I had fully surrendered to His plan for my life.
My friends and I were in our upcoming production of SOUTH PACIFIC, we were going to our arch rival Herrin High School’s production of L’il Abner, a drive of less than nine miles. As we reached the outskirts of Herrin, the driver of the car approaching us lost control, skidded into our lane, and hit us head-on. Seat belts were not standard equipment in 1965. I was seated behind my friend Alan, the driver; his girl friend and Mother were in the front seat with him. Had Alan’s Mom not been with us, I am positive I would have been in her seat. She never regained consciousness.
Because I grabbed the front seat to brace myself for the impact, my right wrist was severely broken; the doctors told my Dad it was like hamburger. I also had a badly broken nose. Alan’s Mom, a dedicated Christian and long time Sunday School teacher at Marion First Baptist Church, was ready to meet Jesus. Because of my wrestling with Him for some 30 plus months over my call to preach, I was not absolutely certain I was. At that moment I said, “Lord, if you will only get me out of this mess, I’ll do what you want me to do.”
It was under these circumstances that Gene Black called my attention to Romans 8:28. For awhile following the accident I believed I had been predestined to be in that collision in order for God to call me to my senses. Soon, however, I read a testimony, I don’t remember where, that affirmed the truth that indeed, “. . .We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” It said something like this, “So often when something bad happens to us we say, ‘This is God’s will, when actually it is only human circumstances.” Not everything that happens to us as Christians is good, but God has an uncanny way of taking those bad situations, hardships, heartaches, hurts, illnesses, sorrows, disappointments, and pain and turning them into something good for His glory and our growth in Christian maturity.
This is not a new Christian principle. It finds expression in the Old Testament in the Life of Joseph, Jacob’s favorite son to whom he gave The Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. Joseph was seventeen when his brothers sold him into Egyptian slavery. It wasn’t until he was about thirty that he was elevated to the position of Pharaoh’s Prime Minister. He was wrongfully incarcerated in prison much of that time, perhaps as long as eleven years.
After Jacob’s death, Joseph’s ten older brothers were afraid that he might seek revenge for the way they had treated him; beg for his mercy. Joseph affirms the truth of Romans 8:28 when in Genesis 50:20 he reassures them, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
Liz and I have witnessed the Lord on many occasions bring good results from bad circumstances in our lives. I shared with you this past summer my personal testimony in the message “Obstacles to Grace” how God did just that through my experiences of entering seminary. Here is just one more example. In the summer of 1976 we were visited in our first Church at Marissa by my seminary friends Bob and Mary Lou Manter from West Ohio. We were beginning our fourth year in that first appointment. Bob and Mary Lou had just moved to their second Church, and they were excited about that.
As I looked at the other pastors who had been in either my ordination class or my graduating seminary class, I quickly saw that I was the only one in either class who was still in his first appointment. Therefore, I told my District Superintendent that I would like to move. A year later the Superintendent, who was a pretty close friend, told me that my name was “penciled in” to go to a Church in Mt. Vernon, a Church I had dreamed of pastoring. We became excited about that possibility, and Liz and I even drove over to Mt. Vernon to “glance at the parsonage.”
I was disappointed when the move did not materialize and we stayed at Marissa one additional year; we did not need to move, but I particularly wanted to experience the “trill of moving” for the first time. Now God soon turned that disappointment into joy. We had been trying for sometime to have a baby and were on adoption lists. By staying in Marissa one more year, we found out just after Thanksgiving that we could adopt Justin, and thus our family became complete. Once again we saw that “in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”
Are you discouraged over some situation, circumstance, or sorrow in your life today? Are you facing some crisis for which there seems no way of escape? Are you hurting and in pain? Are you sick and see no hope? Do you carry a burden of grief? Romans 8:28 is God’s promise to us as His people in such times. Note the promise is specifically for the children of God. God “works out all things for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose.”
We, the Church of Jesus Christ, are the ones “called according to His purpose.” God’s purpose is His intention, His plan, His will for each one of us personally and collectively for us as Trinity United Methodist Church. As we individually and as the Body of Christ fully obey and follow His intention, His plan for our own lives and our Church, we can rest assured “all things will work together for our good and for His glory.” Not everything that comes our way will always be good, but eventually we shall see how He brings good results from bad circumstances.
If “all things are to work to work together for our good,” we must truly “love the Lord.” All things do not always work together for the good of everyone; “all things work together for good to those who love the Lord.” To experience the promise, we by the power of the Holy Spirit living in us must live out Jesus’ commandment in Mark 12:29, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Only then can we know that in His time we shall see that “all things work together for our good.” Let’s take it one step further. When we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; we will fulfill the purpose to which He has called us, to “love our neighbor as we love ourselves.”
Often we shall see God bring good results out of bad situations in this lifetime, but sometimes we may not see that until eternity. One day, however, Jesus will reverse all wrongs; the Day is coming when we shall see Abraham’s question in Genesis 18:25 completely fulfilled, “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” This is a rhetorical question whose obvious answer is a resounding, “Yes, He absolutely will.”
Do you love the Lord your God “with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength?” Are you fulfilling His intention, His purpose, His plan, His will for your life? Then take courage; God will continually prove to you “that He will work all things for your good.”
An old Gospel hymn by Annie Johnson Flint sums up today’s message so well for me:
God has not promised skies always blue,
Flower strewn pathways all our lives through;
God has not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.
Refrain
But God has promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.
God has not promised we shall not know
Toil and temptation, trouble and woe;
He has not told us we shall not bear
Many a burden, many a care.
Refrain
God has not promised smooth roads and wide,
Swift, easy travel, needing no guide;
Never a mountain rocky and steep,
Never a river turbid and deep.
Refrain
[--Source: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/w/h/whatgodh.htm]
Take courage, my brothers and sisters: “. . . We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”
