Facing the Unknown – Part #2

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Rom 8:28)

Before a person can apply the four steps that Dr. Habermas gives and to being to possess the “peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension” (Php. 4:7) they must understand one thing: Everything works together for the good of those who love God.

Allow me to repeat that: Everything…everything!…works together for good to those who love God!

It was this understanding that allowed me to finally overcome worry and to have peace in my life, and I am convinced that understanding this concept can bring peace to anyone who is a follower of Christ. This is an important concept that must be grasped before a person can begin to possess the peace of God.

However, there is one major problem that people have with this concept: It requires that we place are trust unequivocally, with no reservation, in God and in His plan for our lives. It means that we learn to completely turn over our wants and desires, our hopes and our dreams, to Him with the understanding that He knows what is best for our lives. And I think that this is where most people have the problem.

I think that the reason people have such a problem with trusting God is because we do not understand that what God wants to do in our lives is so much better than anything that we can imagine. And because we fail to understand that God really, truly does want to do what is best for us, we worry constantly over things that happen in our lives. Or, rather, we worry over things that might happen in our lives. We worry about the “what-ifs.”

Because of this, we often end up fighting God every step of the way when He is trying to bring us to a place in Him that is so much better than anything we ever could have imagined!

One thing that helped me learn to trust God completely was understanding that we humans are all looking for fulfillment. We all have an emptiness inside of us that we long to be filled. The Christian band Audio Adrenaline called it a “God-shaped Hole,” and I think that is exactly what it is. The problem is that many of us do not realize that true fulfillment can only from God, so we look for it in other places. (Please understand that I am talking to Christians here, not to non-Christians. We Christians are just as guilty as the non-Christians in refusing to seek for our fulfillment in Christ and Christ alone.)

Instead of seeking fulfillment in Christ we seek for fulfillment in the opinions of others, in boyfriends and girlfriends, in imagined intimacy, in materialism, in thrills and experiences, all the while failing to realize that anything that this Earth can provide is ultimate emptiness when compared to the fulfillment that can come through Christ. It is not that any of these things are wrong or that God does not want us to have these things, it is only that these things can never bring true fulfillment. They must “play second fiddle” to Christ if a person ever wants to have true peace and fulfillment.

See, this is the position that I was in for 27 years, so I am speaking from personal experience. I was raised in a Christian family and I was truly saved (what I am talking about in this blog has nothing to do with salvation), but yet I did not seek my fulfillment in Christ alone. Why? Because I was afraid to trust Christ completely.

So instead of giving everything over to Christ I tried to hold on to things. I tried to hold on to my dreams and plans and hopes instead of giving them over to Christ.

But sometime in April or May of this year it clicked with me that I needed to understand one thing: All things work together for good to those who love God.

It was when this understanding finally struck me that I realized that God only wants what is best for us. His goal is not to destroy our hope. No, He is the giver of hope. If we give our lives completely over to Him and seek our fulfillment in Him then we will find the only true fulfillment.

I guess that’s why Jesus said that if a person wants to find life then they have to lose it (Mat. 10:39; 16:25).

In the next four blog posts I am going to give the steps that Dr. Habermas gave for “applying theology to our emotions” and finding peace. The reason that I had to write this post first is because Dr. Habermas’ steps are based on a person completely and totally trusting God for everything. The only way that a person can do that is to understand that God causes everything to work together for good.

Let me ask you: Are you seeking your fulfillment in Christ and in Christ alone, or are you hanging on to parts of your life, afraid to give them up? If so, I encourage you to give everything over to God right here and right now. Please let me say that a person will never feel like doing this! No human in their right mind will ever feel like giving up control of their lives! It is something that can only be done through an act of will. But possessing the knowledge that God causes everything to work together for good will give you the strength that you need to give everything over to Christ.

And when you do that you will begin to experience true fulfillment and you will begin to experience the peace that passes all comprehension.

I know, because it happened to me.