“It’s All Good”

[Netchaplain]

We who are reborn are merely camping on low grounds until the High Grounds are reached; and for us, through the entirety of the journey since believing, “all things work together for good,” that is, to the reborn! This means we can consider all that we encounter from now on, esp. the difficulties, regardless of the degree and from where they originate, are being used for our good. This applies mostly to our faith in trusting God that He is unfailingly doing this, for our faith is now of the utmost importance, as “faith works by love” (Gal 5:6), thus the stronger the faith, the stronger the practical love.

I say practical love because it is the actual love, not just desired love. One’s desired love to God can be unlimited, but desirable-love-only is not actual, because only practical love is real. Faith is being used only in this life as our “hope” (not a hopeful hope but a knowing hope). In eternity we will only walk by sight, for faith and hope will no longer need to be; “hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man sees, why does he yet hope for (Rom 8:24)? Being “saved by hope” has not the sense that the hope we are given (same as “through faith” Eph 2:8) saves us; “not that hope is the cause of salvation, but the means by which souls are brought to the enjoyment of it; salvation, or glory, is the object of it” (J Gill).

I think the most pleasing of it all concerning God’s goodness to us is that it is not affected by what we do and say (which only shows who we are, not makes who we are), but by what God He already prearranged, “from everlasting to everlasting”!

 

[Randy Kluth]

Yea, God remains the same, equally loving all the time and always available. However, there is that thing called "divine judgment." God does respond to what we do, and this may affect how we can put God into use in our lives. If we, for example, regularly reject God's call upon our lives, we cannot just, at any time we want, access this call. We have to respond to God *at the time that He calls us.* Virtue comes from our responding to God--not by our calling upon Him at any time, as if He is a genie in a bottle!

You show real insight, and I agree with your sentiments expressed here. True love is action. It's important to say this because as young Christians we received the love of God, and because we felt that love we thought we were truly loving. But my wife and I just call this "baby gifts." That high level of spirituality as a young Christian is just there to encourage us to be what that love inspires within us. The true test comes when we put love into action, "in season and out of season."

I also completely agree that good and bad comes from the Lord, and that we can trust the Lord whatever comes our way. But again, this only applies to the one walking with the Lord and obeying the Lord. Once we receive the New Nature from Christ, we must live in it, or bad things will happen as a result of our disobedience. We will learn from this bad experience, but it would not be what the Lord really wanted us to experience.

The good Christian too receives bad experiences. But we can trust that what Jesus said is true: "blessed are you when men persecute you for your righteousness." God is always with us, always love us, and is always a blessing to us, even when we suffer. His affection is beyond description, and it draws me like a moth to the flame!