Romans 8:28-29 states,"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He predestined to become conformed the image of His Son in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers." The great news about this verse is that the aim of everything that takes place in the life of a believer is aimed/designed to cause the believer to look, act, think, and speak more like Jesus.
It's easy to accept the good experiences in life as coming from the hands of God. Finding a spouse, having children, landing the job of one's dreams, getting an expected sum of money...you get the idea. It does not take much effort for a Christian to say, "God you are good. Thank you for how you have blessed me." If you have a second, I want to encourage you to jot down the 10 best experiences that you can remember and how you responded to God for each experience. I also want you to think about how those experiences changed your life.
While it's easy to accept the good experiences as coming from the hands of God, it's much harder to accept that the negative experiences also come from the hands of God. There are many ways to express the idea that the bad experiences in life come from the hand of God, but here are a few, "God orchestrates the good and the bad", "God causes the good and the bad", and "God is using the good and the bad". It doesn't really matter how we rearrange or swap out words, Scripture is pretty clear that God is Sovereign and everything that comes to pass is controlled by Him and has a purpose. What are the 10 worst experiences of your life? How did you respond to God in each of those experiences? How did those experiences change your life?
"WOW! What a blog post Ben!"...that might be what you're thinking. "Aren't we supposed to be talking about the Gospel (Good News) and emulating Christ? That's what the title says." Here's the deal, I don't think that we change all that much during the great wonderful happy experiences our life. We might change a little, but we change a lot during the negative experiences of our lives. We are called to Emulate Jesus during the Good and the Bad, but it's most difficult. There is great truth in Romans 8:28-29 (the verse quoted at the beginning of this blog): "God is causing the bad that we experience to work together for good. And the definition of good is that you and I are being transformed increasingly into the likeness of Jesus with each bad experience we go through." Once our eyes are opened to that truth, we don't have to run away and avoid negative experiences. We can embrace them knowing that God's purpose for you and me is that we become more like Jesus.
That's some of the best news in the world. Regardless of the state of our jobs, our bank accounts, and our friendships, regardless of who is president and whether we are at peace or war, regardless of what has happened in our past and what sins have ensnared us, God purposes for us are good and will come to pass because He will ensure that they come to pass.
So, emulate Jesus...call those you lead to emulate Jesus for their good and their joy. Addicts will experience intense temptation...give them hope that there is more to their temptation than just "not sinning". God's purpose in their temptation is that they are transformed more into the image of Jesus in their thoughts, words, and actions. What Satan and the world intended for evil (death and destruction), God intended for God...their salvation as well as the salvation of countless others. (That's my unpacking and application of Genesis 50:20.)
Expect joyful and painful experiences to come your way as you emulate Him...and be thankful for both! He gave us an example to follow (1 Peter 2:18-24) when relationships go south, when evil people are in authority over us, when children walk away, when bosses lie, when co-workers take credit for what we do, when fellow Christians stab us in the back...we can emulate Christ when we, like Jesus, avoid reviling (verbally assault) when we are reviled, threaten others when we face suffering at their hands, and when we entrust ourselves into the hands of God our King, Father, Friend, and Redeemer. Emulating Jesus IS good news because we are becoming more like Jesus.
