All Things Work Together for Our Good

All Things Work Together for Our Good

I was thinking about my mother’s quilts yesterday morning as I was headed back to work. She managed to get three more quilts made before she passed away – one for each of my kiddos. My youngest daughter’s quilt wasn’t quite finished when she had to quit working on them. I finished hemming the binding after my mother was gone. Quilts were originally born out of need and frugality. No cloth was ever wasted. The string quilts amaze me the most because they use every little snippet of cloth, sown together with other snippets. On their own the pieces are too small to do a thing with. But sown together and then bound in the backing, filled with batting – they are incredibly warm and just right. Each quilt is made to fit the bed it belongs on. 

Life is a lot like a string quilt. Pieces of things here and there – pain, sorrow, betrayal, rejection, shame – seem so useless and wasted. Left in a pile they look like tiny rags and we revisit them. Turning them over in our hands we feel fresh the pain of every agony we’ve ever experienced. Stripped of our dignity, the enemy wants us to remember each event that has brought us any kind of pain. If we remain at that stage, we are destined to live in a heap, bedraggled and falling to pieces again and again.

God wants you to know that not one single thing in your life is ever wasted. He uses it all for His glory and your good – every single thing. Every bitter piece, every torn situation, every hurt, and every cry. He wastes nothing. He uses it all. Piece by piece it may look like a mess, but through God’s mercy and grace there will be a beautiful masterpiece of your life. You can rest in His promises, live in His love and move on. Even rejection is not wasted, for you cannot go where He sends you if you are not free of anything that is binding you to the past. He has something much, much, much more wonderful ahead.

Oh beloved, move on. Quit handling the messes of your past over and over. They unravel more and more. Quit trying to make human sense out of it – they are messes that are divinely meant to be given to God. And as you hand each piece to God you are lightened of your load and God is able to make it all beautiful. He cannot stitch it all together if you do not hand it to Him. Bitterness will continue to break down the very fibers of your being. But forgiveness heals the rips. God has something better in mind than what you’ve been through. His plans can never be thwarted by man’s interference or the devil’s instigation. No weapon formed against you will prosper. 

God loves you and He’s for you and that’s worth giving the pieces to Him and moving on every single time. One day you will see it all as God sees it – a perfect tapestry of His love, mercy and grace.

Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.

Hebrews 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. NIV

Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep His promise.

Lamentations 3:21-23 This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

What's the Word of Faith? Thankfulness!

Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Green Jeans were a huge part of my life as a child. For most of those years it was broadcast in black and white. Imagine my surprise seeing that the farmer did indeed wear green jeans! Captain Kangaroo taught kids my age the importance of those magic words, “Please” and “Thank you”.  Although the show itself is long gone, I asked my own children, “What’s the magic word?”

Teaching words that get a right response is good for kids. Although the words themselves are not really magic, it is important to teach children to be thoughtful and thankful.  Words are important and words do make a difference. How we speak to one another, how we respond to one another is really an attitude of the heart. 

God loves to hear from His children. We love to hear from God. He has given us an entire book of words to teach us the right way to live, to respond to Him and to one another. He’s given us His heart wrapped up in a book.  We can know His mind and we can know how to respond. 

I don’t know about you, but when I forget to be thankful to Him for everything, in everything and in spite of everything, my attitude is left wide open for grumbling, murmuring, complaining and finding fault. 

Thankfulness puts the dew on the otherwise dry fields of discouragement. It puts the petals on the rose that would otherwise just be a thorny situation. It takes the lemons in life, sour situations we don’t want to go through, and makes them drinkable. Thankfulness takes the problem out of my hands and hands it back to God. It acknowledges that although life can be oh so hard, our God is oh so merciful. He is oh so much wiser than us.  His ways are higher than our ways and thankfulness is an act of worship to the One Who really holds everything in His hands.

What are you facing this morning? What are you searching for to fulfill your life? What is lacking? Are you in a hard spot? Are you at a bend in the road and the only choice is to go on with nothing to show for it? Life can be hard. People make decisions that affect us. We have to choose not just the road we take but whether we want to live in God’s light or try to muster up our own.  We have to choose this day whether we are going to believe God and give thanks or deny God and murmur and complain. I have to make that choice and sometimes I choose wrong. Whenever we choose to murmur and complain instead of giving thanks we never arrive where God wants us. Thankfulness is the only way to find joy, have peace and rest in His promises.  Although thanking God is not a magic word, it is a sacrifice to God. It says, Lord, You are good and I trust You regardless of what I see with my eyes.

Oh beloved, open up God’s Book of Love this morning and read! Every promise of God is yours. Every outcome of your life will work together for good. Every hurtful situation will be redeemed by His glory. Every attitude changes into gratitude when you take His word for truth. Applying thankfulness to all things will gladden your heart and strengthen your resolve. You can make it beloved, because God is with you. You can get through it beloved, because God is going before you. And you can give thanks no matter what because you know God is greater than any problem you encounter.

Give thanks this morning that, no matter what, God loves you and He’s for you and that’s all that really matters!

I Thessalonians 5:18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 5:20 And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Philippians 4:6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.

Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.

Psalm 50:14 Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God, and keep the vows you made to the Most High.

Colossians 2:7 Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.