Two Sides

           When hard pressed, I cried to the Lord; he brought me into a spacious place. The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? (Psalm 118:5-6)

         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. (Romans 8:28)

           But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. (Job 23:10)

There are two sides to these passages. The first is that God is in control. He has promised to protect us and to be with us until the end of the age. Mortals cannot condemn a person to eternity without God’s blessing (AKA Hell.) No matter what humans may do to us, it does not change our relationship with God and He can heal all wounds.

On the other side, there is the reality that mortals can cause great pain, and that God’s purposes and tests can involve things that can and do destroy us. If they didn’t, David would not have needed to cry to the Lord and Job would have an easy life that didn’t involve losing all his children in one day or having his friends treat him as if he were a monster.

God causes all things to work for our good, but that doesn’t mean that all things are good, or that they don’t hurt, or that we can shrug them off as if they were nothing. One of the reasons we can say that God causes all things to work for our good is that hard things tend to turn us to God – to cause us to cry to the Lord. That is good for us. We can’t do it on our own. We were never meant to.

I’ve said before, when we are in pain, or when we are afraid, or when we are angry, our worlds narrow down to the feelings and what we perceive to be their causes. We think it doesn’t get more basic than that. But it does. God is with us. The only thing more basic than that is …God.