FEAR NO EVIL 3

Bless our God, O peoples! Give him a thunderous welcome! Didn’t he set us on the road to life? Didn’t he keep us out of the ditch? He trained us first, passed us like silver through refining fires, brought us into hardscrabble country, pushed us to our very limit, Road-tested us inside and out, took us to hell and back; Finally, he brought us to this well-watered place. Psalms 66:8-12 MSG

It is a new day! God’s faithfulness over all that we do in the blog and beyond is ever increasing. It is by His mercies that we are able to continually bring His words to you through the blog. We are back on our series on “Fear no evil”. We have come this far through the help of God to break down ideologies and shed great light on the reality of evil and the provisions God has made available for His children to overcome evil that may come their way in their sojourn on earth.

In this episode, we shall be diving more into the positive purpose of challenges that come our way as believers and the greater goods embedded in them only if we will allow God to walk us through the situations and work on our inside to bring out His best in us, to the glory of His Name. It is time to glean from the Lord again. Get ready for the fire experience!

We must believe that God is working through the situations in our lives for a greater good. Although, it might be unknown to us at that particular time, it will soon be revealed through time.

Beyond the defensive roles of God in keeping us away from evil, there are times when God allows the wind of tribulation to blow in our direction, although He is not the originator of evil yet, He can choose to permit it or not, according to His eternal counsel and plans for our lives. We must always be quick to acknowledge that God is sovereign and unquestionable in all His ways. He takes no counsel from anyone before directing the course of the elect. This is why every true believer must come to that point when we intentionally surrender our all to the LORD in life and death. Like the popular line from the evergreen hymn of our time says, we must all be able to boldly say: “No guilt in life, no fear in death!”.

God is ever conscious about the tiniest bit of our lives! Nothing moves about our lives without His knowledge.

Also, we must believe that God is working through the situations in our lives for a greater good. Although, it might be unknown to us at that particular time, it will soon be revealed through time. Remember, time reveals! The Passion Translation of Romans 8:28 explains this truth in clearer terms: “So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together for good, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose”.

Our reasoning and point of reference in life must be fuelled by a strong conviction from the word of God. Apostle Paul declared boldly here that we are convinced that every detail of our lives are being interplayed together for our good! God is ever conscious about the tiniest bit of our lives! Nothing moves about our lives without His knowledge! Yes, He is that intentional about our lives! He will not suffer our foot to be moved!

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In God’s eternal script for us, there is no sad ending, everything definitely ends positively.

There are times we encounter situations that make us doubt the presence of God and His faithfulness in our lives, we must know that right at that point, God’s unlimited provision and love is what is keeping us alive and well enough to live through those moments. Man is nothing without God, always! So, all that is happening in our lives, both the good and the bad, the convenient and the inconvenient situation, the expected and the unexpected shockers we get to live by each day are well played out before His Majesty and He is definitely sure it will all end for our good! In God’s eternal script for us, there is no sad ending, everything definitely ends positively! So, the next time unexpected challenges begin to shake you up, remember that everything always ends in our favour in this Kingdom, except you are not on His side! He truly cares!

All that we experience in our daily living are fragments of what brings about the fullness of His plans and purposes here on earth, provided we are in Him.

All that we experience in our daily living are fragments of what brings about the fullness of His plans and purposes here on earth, provided we are in Him. This is why we know that He is intentional about our lives and all that happen to us. God is a profitable investor and business man! You can be sure that whichever experience that won’t be needed in the future He desires for you will never play out in your story no matter what is prevailing all around you per time!

God will only allow what is needed to be captured in your experience, and which is expected to prepare you for destiny fulfilment.

Have you ever wondered why God will just single out a particular person out of an evil occurrence that happened to hundreds or thousands of other people? I have personally heard the testimony of a man of God that God saved from the tragic bomb blast that took many lives at the world trade center, many years ago in America. Imagine how difficult it was for such person to come forward to testify to the goodness of God about how he was miraculously exempted from that painful incidence that shook the entire world.

God is a profitable investor and business man! You can be sure that whichever experience that won’t be needed in the future He desires for you will never play out in your story no matter what is prevailing all around you per time!

Think about how the families of those that lost their loved ones would have questioned God about how He left their precious ones to die while exempting this young man whose wedding was only some days away! Here is what we must all know; God is just! God will only allow what is needed to be captured in your experience and which is expected to prepare you for destiny fulfilment. Nothing more! He won’t bring you before any evil that will ultimately destroy you. Always remember, He is your Father and protector!

For God to bring forth beautiful and glorious dimensions through our lives, we must be willing to pass through the refining fire of the Almighty which will qualify us for His usage even if it comes in form of hard experiences.

In our focus passage, the Psalmist opened us up to a powerful revelation about God’s way of dealing with man. One important strategy God uses in training His own beloved ones is the advent of tribulations. We explained in the previous episode that there are situations that can be described as deep waters, others are like rivers and then we pass through nightmare-like situations that can be likened to walking through fire! What is the purpose of all these different degrees of customized hardships that comes our way? God uses all of these to train us and further equip us enough to face the business He called us to fulfill here on earth. the tenth verse of the same Psalms 66 says: “…For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined…”. So, there are days we pass through tests from the Lord, other times we face situations that are like refining process.

We all know that the process through which silver is refined into what we all adore and use for beautification is not an easy one. In the same vein, for God to bring forth beautiful and glorious dimensions through our lives, we must be willing to pass through the refining fire of the Almighty which will qualify us for His usage even if it comes in form of hard experiences!

God’s tangible presence is felt the most during difficult moments of our lives. A man once said, when worship comes from a heart experiencing pain and total despair, it travels faster before His Majesty as the emptiness and vulnerability of that heart makes it true and pure! Today, many of us will be literarily cajoled to fellowship with God in worship before we connect simply because all around us still seems to go fine as planned.

At that moment when God begins to invade our plans and we begin to realize how naked and helpless we are becoming, our hearts become more open to receive comfort and strength from God. So, why waste your present circumstances through hopelessness and suicidal thoughts when you can turn it all to God in the place of sincere worship and allow His ever comforting presence to fellowship with you and bring you peace?

Lessons learnt during the dark nights of our lives stick longer than others!

Finally, it is very important to note that lessons learnt during the dark nights of our lives stick longer than others! There is a way tragic situations make us grow soft in heart and open hearted towards people that we wouldn’t have listened to, normally. We pick lifelong lessons from our worst moments which we always refer to while relating with others. You can most likely think of one serious decision you took as a result of something that happened to you in the past as you read this.

The end of every evil God allows in your life will definitely be celebration and promotion.

Also, nothing reveals the true intents of a man’s heart better than afflictions! It is true that God sometimes allows these events to happen so as to give room for a long standing bad attitude to be corrected in our lives. When this happens, instead of asking many questions that won’t be answered, why not take a step backward and start noting out the wrong habits and attitudes that shouldn’t come out for that situation together with us? Remember, the last part of our anchor passage says “…yet in the end you always bring us out better than we were before, saturated with your goodness…”.

The end of every evil God allows in your life will definitely be celebration and promotion. Are you ready for your next promotion in God? Then, get ready for His trainings and tests. You can also be assured of His ever present help all through the journey! Were you blessed? Comment with “I CHOOSE THE WAY OF THE LORD” in the comment section below. Anticipate our character studies from the heroes of faith in the next episodes. Stay blessed!