I’ve been thinking much lately about how God uses difficulties, trials, and even sin for the accomplishment of His purposes and even for good in the lives of the believers (think Romans 8:28-29). Our tendency is to react defensively and with significant resistance to a statement like that. We struggle to accept that God works all things together both for His glory and our good.
And that’s one reason I appreciated this statement that I read from Casey Lute’s recently published book “But God…” an examination of nine of the “but God” statements in Scripture:
The “But God” statements of Scripture often follow accounts of the shortcomings and sins of man. Whether the prevalent evil of humanity that led to the flood in Noah’s day, the obstinacy of the Hebrews throughout the Old Testament, the defiant insistence of the Jewish leaders about crucifying Jesus, or the willingness of nominal believers to run away from the Christian faith into false teaching, mankind’s sins have repeatedly made a mess of this world. But God has been there each time, acting in spite of these sins, and using them for his own ends. The biblical story line follows man down a trail of sin to its bitter end . . . where God yet remains, only and ever good and holy and intent on his purpose. Man sinned, but God was there, and he made things right.
Words of Grace 