No Evil Shall Befall You

Chances are, although you know you should believe what the Psalmist said, you secretly look at one or two points in your life and are convinced that evil has, indeed, befallen you more than once. Maybe you took ill, or lost your job, or were robbed, deserted, or in some other way devastated. And you think, evil has befallen me!

But here is the catch: if you love God, it wasn’t evil, because it will work out for good.

We often think there are two conditions to that "all things work together for good," but I believe that one is a condition, and the other is the outworking of that condition. The condition for "all working for good" is that you are called by God. If you are called, that will eventually (maybe not immediately, but eventually) result in you loving God. If you love God, then, I believe that is clear evidence that you’ve been called.

This is such an awesome promise!! How could it get better than this? What better guarantee could you ask for, than to be assured that nothing that is going on in your life right now is actually going to harm you? Along with that comes the assurance that no matter who appears to be opposing you, even that will work out well, because if God is for you, there isn’t anyone who can actually be against you. Oh, they may have adverse feelings toward you, but they can’t keep you from the good that God has for you, nor can their feelings have a long-term negative effect.

So here is the question: if we really understand that we love God because God loved us and called us, and if we really understand that His calling comes with the promise of eventual good, no matter how things appear right now, how can we be afraid? What is there to be afraid of?

Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to think that we have to do something to continue to be called, so that the promise will be true. What if God drops me? What if He didn’t actually call me, and I’ve just made it up? What if He doesn’t actually love me?

He’s not cruel, though. If He’s turned your heart to Him, He wants you to love Him, and He wants that because He already loves you. You don’t have to be perfect to maintain your "called" status. What He is after is a heart that is fully turned toward Him. That’s all. He’ll take it from there.

Meanwhile, we can walk with confidence, and be unafraid-if we keep our minds on this, at least. We don’t need to be terrified, because He is with us. He is for us. He is God. And He loves us.

We live with the awesome privilege of being able to look over our shoulders at pain and difficulty and say, "It worked out for good!" We can look forward to the same.

That is awesome.

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