God uses the Good, Bad, Ugly
God uses your life experiences to shape you into what he wants you to become for his kingdom. When God created his church, He intended it to be a full-service station managed by skilled attendants who use their God-given abilities to serve its members’ well-being. God uses the good, bad, and ugly to shape you for his glory.
For example, the Apostle Paul had intellect. He had studied the first five books of the Bible. When God wanted someone to write the New Testament, He chose a man with academic training [Acts 22:3]. God chose a man who understood the culture of his times; and used him to write 13 books of the New Testament because of his good life experiences. Even before he was saved, God got him ready for when he was saved.
God can also use the bad things. The bad things are the mistakes and wrong turns you have made. God doesn’t endorse bad things. He disapproves of bad things. But He is sovereign and can use a crooked stick and still hit a bull’s eye. God can use these mistakes and flip them so that you can use them to help other people. How many of you have learned from the mistakes that you made? Now that you have learned it, you can help others not to go that way. It didn’t remove the pain, it didn’t remove the consequences, but God is so good that He can use your mistakes.
For example, Solomon made many bad choices and major mistakes [1 Kings 11]. His kingdom was split because of his missteps. So, when it comes to being wise, he was an expert. When it came to teaching us how to live, he wrote Ecclesiastes because God is just that sovereign.
So, is God saying it’s OK to go out and do bad things because He can work them for our good? No! Paul says, in Romans 6:1, “Shall we sin that grace may abound?”
In other words, shall we do wrong just because we know God can use it? When I spanked my kids, I wanted them to learn something from it. Likewise, when you make a mistake, and God spanks you for it, he wants you to learn from it as He shapes you into what He wants you to become for His kingdom [Hebrews 12:7-11].
The ugly is the wrong done to us by somebody else. It wasn’t our fault. It wasn’t my fault that I was raised in a dysfunctional family. It wasn’t my fault that many things came upon us over which we had no control. The story of Joseph is an excellent example of this [Genesis 37]. One negative thing after another negative thing happened to him. He didn’t do anything wrong, but he got the picture because he said, “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.” [Genesis 50:20 NRSV]
But if you don’t have that view of God, you won’t see him stitching all things together for your good. And you will be bitter, angry, frustrated, and not want to do anything because your God will be so small that you won’t understand that God can use the good, the bad, and the ugly in the same blender and still bake a cake.
2 Corinthians Chapter 1:4 says, “God comforts us in all our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we are comforted by God.” In other words, God lets you hurt; He uses your hurt to help somebody else in hurt while He takes care of you!
Be encouraged!
Editor’s note: Pastors, ministers or other writers interested in writing for this section may submit articles for consideration to [email protected] Please include your name, phone number and the name and location of your church or ministry.
CHUKA KEN MINISTRY 