God Always Has His Best Waiting For Us….

When we read Romans 8:28, believers are comforted and pagans roll their eyes in unbelief. But what do believers see in this verse? Do we really believe God can use tragedy, or evils acts for our good? What about rape, murder, or death? Can God use that for our good? Here in Jonah chapter one we get a small glimpse of this concept in actions. Jonah is running away from God. God told him to go preach to the city of Nineveh, the Babylonian capital. Jonah despised these people. He didn’t want to do it, so he found a ship going in the opposite direction. While on the ship a huge storm came. It was all Jonah’s fault. So to save the lives of all the boat’s crew, Jonah told them to throw him overboard. Whether Jonah actually died or not is another blog post, but the point I want to make is this: Jonah’s tragedy led to the boat’s crew repentance and serving God. Whether his death or suffering (whichever happened to get his full attention), it got the attention of the ship’s inhabitants, and changed their hearts. This is one Biblical example of God using “all things” (in this case bad) for the good of the men on board (and eventually Nineveh, and Jonah as well). Just because we lack the spiritual sight to always recognize God’s hand in all events, doesn’t mean He’s not there working it out for our good. Like I always say, “no matter how we feel about something, even if we don’t see it, we have to go with what we know to be true”. Even if it costs us our life. God always has His best waiting for us. If He didn’t, He would tell us He does.

1 The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce My judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”3 But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.4 But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart. 5 Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship.But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold. 6 So the captain went down after him. “How can you sleep at a time like this?” he shouted. “Get up and pray to your god! Maybe He will pay attention to us and spare our lives.”7 Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit. 8 “Why has this awful storm come down on us?” they demanded. “Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?”9 Jonah answered, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”10 The sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the Lord. “Oh, why did you do it?” they groaned. 11 And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, “What should we do to you to stop this storm?”12 “Throw me into the sea,” Jonah said, “and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.”13 Instead, the sailors rowed even harder to get the ship to the land. But the stormy sea was too violent for them, and they couldn’t make it. 14 Then they cried out to the Lord, Jonah’s God. “O Lord,” they pleaded, “don’t make us die for this man’s sin. And don’t hold us responsible for his death. O Lord, You have sent this storm upon him for Your own good reasons.”15 Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once! 16 The sailors were awestruck by the Lord’s great power, and they offered Him a sacrifice and vowed to serve Him.17 Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights. Jonah 1:1-17