Day 6a Devotional: God Lays Nothing To Waste

Chasing Hope: The pursuit of a Hope that lasts

Day 6a: God lays nothing to waste.

A few weeks into starting my cancer treatment I felt awfully sick and the process was exhausting. The pain continued to grow, along with the feelings of depletion and nausea. I kept wondering, “what is all of this adding up to?” I asked, “God is this building me up or tearing me down, this all feels so useless and futile, more so when I know you could work a miracle and just heal me.”  I then was reminded of an incident when I was younger, and I felt God showed me something in the midst of the questioning that related to when I was at in that moment.

 When I was younger my family had a Chevy Nova beater car. One day while dad was driving, a piece of asphalt had popped up and hit the gas tank, causing a huge upward dent and a hole at the top of that dent.  We couldn’t afford to fix it so we drove the car as it was, but could only put about 5 gallons of gas in it or else it would spill out.  Finally, we had enough money to fix the tank, so dad took it off, put it under the walnut tree behind our house and was going to repair it.  After prepping the tank and flushing with water and putting a vacuum cleaner on it to pull fumes, my dad had me hold a penny unto the hole as he came in to braze the penny unto the hole.  All of a sudden a big boom and hard percussion of air had hit me, the gas tank fumes lit on and causing a small explosion that came out of the tank filler neck.  My dad quickly leaned over to make sure I was ok, picking me up off the ground realizing I survived, he looked at the tank and smiled and me.  My dad then said “well look at that, it blew the dent out, we will be able to hold more gas again!,” we then went back to fixing it.  My dad is the most resourceful man I know, he always found a way to fix stuff.  I can countless times we would pull over to help people on the side of the road, I can remember him helping a friend and I out with his car using a ball point pen, electrical tape and a rubber band.  My dad laid nothing to waste. 

The secular world has this belief that our hardships, pains and suffering are all for no good reason, that they are purely to the detriment of our wellbeing.  This type of thinking is one in which causes people to pick up this almost entitled feeling that nothing should go wrong in life, we begin to then want the same for others and they inflict this way of thinking on others, and when hard times hit, and they always do its inevitable, they then feel violated, hopeless, and defeated.   This way of thinking to me, is so sad, and so hopeless, and cold.  That’s why I am thankful for the biblical Christian view that we can embrace.  See God’s word says in Romans 8:28

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose. - Romans 8:28

We often hear that God works all things for the good, but the world leaves out “for those who love him” and we also forget it doesn’t say all things will be good, it just says He works them for the good.  With these 2 major points missed, we see that bad things happen, and we sometimes blame God and push Him away, when in reality we should be reaching for him.  The offer for things to work for the good comes at the negotiated price of you loving God by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  The beauty in this is it’s like God is saying to us, “I understand what you are going through, and when you hurt I hurt with you, when you grieve I too am with you, while you may not see me intervene the way in which relief would come the quickest, know that all your pain and suffering does not get laid to waist, no, I God will use it for the good, I refuse to see you suffer needlessly.”  Now that is a hope I can sign up for!!  One that promises He is with me, and that none of this is in vain, but it’s for all the good He can get out of the situation, GOD LAYS NOTHING TO WASTE. 

Assignment:

Write down a time where you felt God was not there or working things for the good, but when you came out the other side you can see where He was.

What is one think you expect God to work for the good in your life that you are going through?

 Prayer:

Lord God, I first want to thank you for your love for me, that you love me so much that you gave me Jesus and with that the gift of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus says is our helper and advocate. Father, forgive me for the moments in which I question your love for me because of my situation, when I should know its your love for me that gives me the strength to endure.  God, please help me remember that in the midst of my hopelessness and suffering, that you are here with me, and that you working in ways that I don’t even know or see, but none the less you are still working.  Lord, I realize also that your ways are higher than mine, that I don’t have the vantage point you do, Lord pull me up to your vantage point God, help me walk with you in obedience as you produce those good things that are promised to come out of my situation.  I thank you that you lay nothing to waste, I pray all these things in Jesus’ name. AMEN.