Covenanter Witness Vol. 55 - Rparchives.org

purpose."good."purpose."good."you."good."sight."for us in Romans 8:28. And it was during those hardyears that that verse came to mean more to me thanperhaps any verse in the Bible. It became my favorite Bible verse, as I tried to understand how andwhy. "And we know that all things work togetherfor good to them that love God, to them who arethe called according to his After graduation from College,still another year was spentwaiting to go forward, a year spent in the steelmill. But that year also proved the truthfulnessof God's Word and made Romans 8:28 evenmore impressive and more precious. The discouragements of those early years, the outstanding faith ofa Christian mother have influenced me and havestrengthened my faith. And so as discouragementshave come in later years it has helped. Early in myministry I was faced with some very serious problems and conditions in the congregation to which Iwent. I needed help. Fortunately a brother ministerAvas in the community, at that time. I went to theHonorary Moderator of this Synod. I wanted help.I talked to him about some of the problems. He said,"Ray, you have more problems now than I've everhad in all my ministry. I'm sorry, I can't helpSo again I was thrown back upon the Lord for helpand again my faith was strengthened.I suppose that all of us, at times, have felt thatour discouragements were more overwhelming andgreater than anyone else's. But as we observe the experiences of others, and how they too have beenthrown back upon the Lord and their faith strengthened, that should strengthen our faith, and enableus to meet the problems that are before us. I presume that you have had difficultywith the fifth andsixth words of Romans 8:28, as I have. "And weknow that all things work together for good . .And I through the years have tried to see how "allthings"could be for my good. And then I realizedthat it was the Apostle Paul who under the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit wrote those words. "Allthings work together for Paul the man whowent through all the experiences which are recordedfor us over in II Cor. 11. Paul could not forget thoseeight times he had been beaten. He could not forgetthat time he had been stoned almost to death. Butstill he was able to write, "All things." Even thosethings ". . . work together for good to them that loveGod, and to them who are the called according to hisWe must accept God's will for our livesand we must try to pattern our lives after the instructions and the directions that are given. Noticealso that God does not say that all things work together for our pleasure, our self-satisfaction, ourhonor, or our success. He says, "All things work together for And if there is any reason why wewould question the truthfulness of God's Word, thenwe must consider the following phrase ". . to them.that love God." We're challenged to test our love forGod.The first thing that I want to suggest in observation is that we must learn the importance of beingfilled with the Holy Spirit and being controlled byHim in our lives. Perhaps there is the key to thewhole matter. Perhaps there is the point at which webegin to fail. If our lives are not filled with the HolySpirit, and if the daily activities of your life andmine are not conformed to God's Will, we may bringdiscouragements and troubles upon ourselves by lackAugust 17, 1955ofwisdom, with our lack of prayer, with our lack ofspiritual insight. We become discouraged when welook at ourselves and the things around us, but instead we should look up to the One who controls allthings. It was when Elijah went 'before the Lord thathe was encouraged, corrected and sent forth. Ourlives will be empty, our labors ineffective, our discouragements will be overwhelming unless we arecontrolled and encouraged,strengthened and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Perhaps that is thereason so many of us have failed. At least I believeit is true with me.One of our children once had one of those toysI forget what it was to represent heavily weighted on the bottom and rounded in shape so that nomatter what you did with it, no matter where youthrew it or how you laid it, it always righted itself.You know, that is the way a Christian life shouldbe. We should be so weighted and filled with theHoly Spirit, so shaped to God's will so that no matter what position we get into in discouragement, wecan right ourselvesbe back up, ready to go. If weare filled with the Holy Spirit, then we can use thesediscouragements as stepping stones rather thanstumbling blocks.The second observation that I suggest is thatwe must recognize the all-wise providences of Godin our lives. Things do not just happen. They comeby the direct or the permissive will of God. He musthave a purpose. It must be according to His will. Andone of our great problems is trying to discover whatHis will is and to fit our lives into it. We must seethat God has a purpose for all the events that comeinto our lives even though at the time we may betoo close to them to see clearly what God's will is.Remember Job? He had several discouragements.Perhaps more than most of us. And yet he withfaith was able to declare, "God hath given, Godhath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."Another thing, we must try to harmonize ourexperiences with God's Word. We have those wordsin James 1 :2-5, "My brother, count it all joy when yefall into divers temptations; knowing this, that thetrying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lackwisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all menliberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be givenhim."We must conform our lives and experiencesunto the will of God as it is revealed to us. Thingswere going pretty tough for Joseph there for awhile but after it was all over Joseph said to hisbrethren, "You meant it for evil, but God meant itfor And he was able to look back over thehard experiences of his life and to see how God wasmysteriously moving his life into position for service.How to meet our discouragements? I suggestfurther that the way we meet our discouragementsconstitutes a test of our love and devotion for God.Remember Jesus said, "Even so, Father, for so itseemeth good in Thy And what ever comes,let us use it. It may do us good. "The trial of yourfaith. . . worketh It patience."may be that we needto be tried as in the fire. We may need to be madehumble before God. God has a purpose.(Continued on page 104)101