…because of the cross.
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Have you ever wondered what the disciples were thinking the day after Christ was crucified?
They had just “failed” by not following the Lord. Peter had defected from his promise to follow Christ to the death. They had all “scattered.”
The One whom they had hoped would deliver them from Roman rule had just been executed as a blasphemer. Their Leader was in the grave.
Ever had times like that? It seems like the hopes and dreams that you thought were from God are in the trash. You think, “This isn’t how it was supposed to turn out.” You wonder where God went.
Yet God is still working. In fact, though our plans are falling apart, His are not. His plan is at work.
The very death that caused the heartbreak of the disciples was the death that would purchase for them the ability to say with the psalmist, “I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” (Ps. 34:1)
In the cross, all of the good things we receive from God were purchased for us.
None of the darkness we go through compares to the darkness that Jesus endured as He took God’s wrath toward our sin.
Yet, in a small way, God is working through your hard time. He may be using you to show Himself to someone. God may be forming in you a greater likeness to Jesus.
When it is impossible to humanly say, “I will praise the Lord,” look to the cross and the resurrection, and be reminded that God uses the evil for good. On the other side of the sorrow is the resurrection work of God.
Have you seen God use man’s evil for good?