All things to our benefit

I recently read from someone that God will not allow it unless He had a purpose for it. Hmm. That really does not line up with what God has shown in the Bible. According to what God showed Paul when writing the Romans, God works all things for our good; not: God only allows things He purposes.

God, according to the Judeo-Christian Bible, set up this world’s system for Man to be responsible for what happens and what is done in this world. So, Man is responsible for his or her actions. If God only allowed what He purposed then Man would not really have responsibility for anything. It would all be on God. God did not set that system up. God said to Adam that Man was to tend, dominate, rule, prosper, multiply, and fill all the Earth. (Genesis 1 and 2)

Everything wrong that happened in the Earth has been Man’s fault. The first act of selfishness. The first murder. Man making themselves God. Man doing all manner of evil to the Earth, to Man; even with fallen angels.

God’s original intention was that Man did this life on Earth with Him, in partnership and mentorship with God. Since Adam and generations following could not; Jesus came to example what that was supposed to be like. Jesus overcame the world; however, those living in the world still did wrong things. Those things that happened to Jesus, God was able to use.

Since the time of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus, Man has had the opportunity to walk with God and not do the works of willful Man. Man has not. Man has done many thing things to Earth that had nothing to do with God’s plans. Now, out of those things that have happened, can God use them for our good? Yes.

This is where Paul noted to the Romans that God works all things together for our good. God is able to use those events that occur and those events where others have set things into motion. What we have done or others have done to us, God can turn those things around. The goal is not to live a “perfect” life – a life that some think should or would be perfect. The goal is to live a life that is perfect in relationship with God, the God of the Bible, and that is only possible through Jesus.

Now, living this life with God, in partnership with God, changes everything from what others experience. God is now able to teach us things, teach us about life, and partner in controlling life around us. If God is in our lives and we trust Him to partner with us, God is able to change, dominate, overcome, and work with us to manage this life, to make things happen and to our benefit.

It is year end for 2014 and a new year is coming. It is time to think through what you can do with God in 2015. What we do, choose to do, impacts the world. What others do impacts our world. There are things placed into motion that are ours to manage… with God. In the same way Jesus spoke to the wind and waves, we can speak to the storms in our lives. We can speak life or death; choose to speak life and with God it will come to pass.