Life is full of things that we don’t like—we get disappointed, a friend
betrays us, we didn’t get the promotion that we worked so hard for. We
see these things as being negative, thinking, That was bad. It didn’t work
out. My prayers didn’t get answered. It’s easy to get discouraged and lose
our passion. But God won’t allow a difficulty unless He’s going to
somehow use it for our good. You may not understand how He’s going to
do it, but if you’ll keep the right attitude, everything that happens in life
will push you further into your destiny. This includes the closed doors
you face, the delays, the person who did you wrong, and the loan that
didn’t go through. God says, “It’s all good. I’m in control. It may not feel
good, but if you’ll trust Me, I’m going to use it for your good.”
When you understand this principle, life gets much more freeing.
You don’t get upset when a coworker plays politics and leaves you out.
You know it’s all good. God allowed it, and He’s going to use it. You
tried, and the business didn’t make it. You don’t give up on your dreams.
You know it’s all good. It’s a part of the process. You don’t let simple
things, such as getting stuck in traffic, get you frustrated and ruin your
day. You know that God is directing your steps. By slowing you down,
He may be keeping you from an accident. He may be developing patience
in you. Whatever it is, He has a purpose for it. Keep the right perspective:
it’s all good.
This boils down to trusting God. We’re not going to understand
everything that happens and doesn’t happen in our lives. If you try to
figure it all out, you’ll get frustrated. God can see the big picture for our
lives. He knows where the dead ends are, the shortcuts, the bumpy roads
that are going to cause you heartache and pain. He’ll keep doors closed
that you prayed would open, because He knows going through them
would be a waste of your time. When you’re mature, instead of getting
bitter when things don’t work out, you’ll say, “God, I trust You. I may
not like it, but I believe You know what’s best for me.”
All Things Work Together for Good
Some of the things that God has in your future you wouldn’t be able to
handle if He gave them to you right now. He loves you too much to let
that happen. He’s developing your character, growing you up. That boss
who gets on your nerves, who doesn’t treat you right—you keep trying to
pray him away. The reason he’s not going away is that God is using him
like sandpaper to rub the rough edges off you. As you keep doing the
right thing, keeping your mouth closed, being respectful, being faithful to
your responsibilities, that’s doing a work in you. You couldn’t develop
your character without him. You may not like it, but it’s good. It’s getting
you ready for the next level of your destiny. God is asking, “Do you trust
Me with your closed doors? Do you trust Me with your unanswered
prayers, with the things you don’t understand?”
Why don’t you quit fighting everything you don’t like and have this
new perspective: it’s all good? “I can’t stand my grouchy boss, but I
know he’s good for me.” This could be your perspective on a child who’s
hard to raise, an illness you’re dealing with, or a dream that’s taking
forever to be fulfilled. You can say, “I don’t like how this has gone, but
I’m not going to live bitter. I know that God is on the throne, and He’s in
control of my life. This thing that has come against me may have been
meant to harm me, but He promised He would use it to my advantage.”
This is what the apostle Paul said in Romans 8:28: “All things work
together for good for those who love God.” He did not say some things,
but all things. They may not be good at the time we go through them. It’s
painful to go through a loss. It hurts when people do us wrong. It’s
discouraging when a dream doesn’t work out. By themselves, they may
not be good, but God promises He’s going to bring it all together. One
day you’ll look back and say that it was all good.
“Well, Joel, I’m discouraged because I lost a loved one. I’m bitter
because a business partner cheated me. Those things weren’t good.”
When you say that, the problem is that you’re isolating single incidents.
God hasn’t brought them together yet. If that bad break were going to
keep you from your destiny, God wouldn’t have allowed it. That setback
was a setup for God to show out in your life. You have to get rid of the
victim mentality and start having a victor mentality. When you have this
attitude that it’s all good, you don’t go around with a chip on your
shoulder. You know God has you in the palms of His hands. You have a
spring in your step and a smile on your face, because you know it’s just a
matter of time before God brings it all together. Scripture says that
weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
Good Friday May Not Feel Good
We celebrate Good Friday each year. We call it “good” now, but two
thousand years ago, on the day when Jesus was crucified, it didn’t look
like a good Friday. The disciples thought it was the worst day of their
lives. Their dreams were shattered. The Man Whom they had devoted
their lives to had been crucified, was dead, and had been buried in a
tomb. Doubts filled their minds: Maybe He wasn’t Who He said He was.
Maybe He tricked us, and we wasted all that time. You can imagine
Mary, the mother of Christ, weeping as she watched her Son hanging on
the cross. She was heartbroken, in so much pain. If someone had
suggested, “Mary, this is a good Friday,” she would have thought they
had lost their mind. “What do you mean, this is good? Look at what’s
happening.” We all face times when life doesn’t make sense. A dream
dies, a relationship ends, we come down with an illness—nothing about
the situation seems good. Good is the last word we would have used to
describe that Friday if we had been there. Tragic Friday, betrayed
Friday, lonely Friday would have seemed like more accurate
descriptions.
When you’re in the heat of the battle, it’s easy to get discouraged.
The disciples could have said, “God, why did You let Judas betray Him?
Why did You let the soldiers crucify Him? Why did You abandon Him in
His time of greatest need?” But a few days later, when Jesus rose from
the dead and appeared to them in the upper room and later cooked them
breakfast on a beach, they realized that He was Who He’d said He was.
He had done what He’d said He was going to do. He’d defeated the
enemy and brought salvation to mankind. They looked back on that
Friday and said, “It wasn’t what we thought. It wasn’t depressing Friday;
it wasn’t tragic Friday. It was all a part of His plan. It was Good Friday.”
When they looked back, what they’d thought was the worst day of their
lives they now called “good.”
What am I saying? It’s all good. It may not be good right now, and it
may not make sense on its own, but God knows how to bring it all
together. You may think it is going to stop you, set you back, and cause
you heartache. If you’ll stay in faith, one day you’ll look back and say it
was good.
God Will Bring It All Together
When God brings it all together, when you meet the divine connection He
has for you, somebody better than you ever dreamed, you’ll look back
and say with a smile, “It was a good Friday when that other person
walked away!” Or what about the supervisor who tried to keep you down
all those years? You didn’t realize it at the time, but staying in that
workplace with a good attitude, giving your best, and doing the right
thing when the wrong thing was happening was developing your
character, strengthening your spiritual muscles, getting you prepared for
the next level. You wouldn’t be who you are without that difficulty. You
didn’t like it at the time, but you look back now and say that was a good
Friday.
That’s what happened to us. Twice we tried to buy property for a new
sanctuary, and both times the property was sold out from under us. I was
so disappointed. With the first property, we had worked on the deal for
about six months, doing soil samples and preliminary drawings. When we
walked into the office to sign the contract that morning, the secretary
came out and announced that the owner had sold the property on the
previous evening. It had been on the market for over twenty years! I came
home disappointed and told Victoria there was no more property for us to
build on. I didn’t see anything good about somebody’s not keeping their
word to sell us that property. If you had told me it was a good Friday, I
would have told you that you weren’t thinking clearly.
A few months later, we found another hundred-acre tract of land. We
thought this was even better than the first property. I prayed, “God, please
open this door. Lord, thank You that we have Your favor.” But the same
thing happened. They sold the property to someone else. It didn’t make
sense to me. But I’ve learned that God’s ways are better than our ways.
The right way to pray is by saying, “God, this is what I want. This is what
I’m believing for, but God, You know what’s best for me. I trust You.”
About six months after that second property was sold out from under
us, we received word that the former Compaq Center was coming
available. I realize now that the reason God closed those other doors is
that He had something much better in store for us. God can see things that
we can’t see. Now I thank Him for closing those doors. I look back and
say, “That wasn’t a defeated Friday after all. That was a good Friday.”
That was God keeping me from receiving less than He had in store for us.
Sometimes God closes doors because we’re believing too small. You may
have dreams that haven’t worked out yet; you’ve had some disappointed
Fridays. Don’t get discouraged. God knows what He’s doing. If you’ll
keep honoring Him, being your best, then your Sunday is coming. God
will open doors that no man can shut.
Open Doors, Closed Doors
My father went through a great disappointment. He had pastored a church
for many years and given his heart and soul to help the people. They had
just built a beautiful new sanctuary, the church was growing, and he was
on the state board for his denomination. Life was good. It looked as
though his future was very bright. But my sister Lisa was born with a
condition similar to cerebral palsy. He began to read the Bible with a
fresh set of eyes. He saw how God healed people and how we’re
supposed to live a victorious, abundant life. He started sharing this with
his congregation. Much to his surprise, they didn’t like his new message.
It didn’t fit into their denominational teaching, and he ended up having to
leave the church. My mother had lifelong friends who never spoke to her
again. My father and mother felt betrayed and discouraged. It didn’t seem
as though there was anything good about having to leave a position that
he had worked so hard for. It felt like a dark Friday, a defeated Friday, a
betrayed Friday to leave the people they had grown to love and care for.
But just as God opens doors, He closes doors. God knew that if my
father stayed in that limited environment, he would never become who he
was created to be. We love open doors because we know they are signs of
God’s favor. But when God closes a door, it takes maturity to say, “I
don’t understand it, but I’m not going to get bitter, and I’m not going to
fight it. God, I trust You.” Instead of sitting around in self-pity, thinking
about what didn’t work out and what was taken away, my parents went
out and started Lakewood Church in a small run-down feed store with
ninety people. It grew and grew to a church of thousands, and we’re still
going strong today. Looking back years later, my father would have told
you, “That betrayal, getting pushed out, that was a good Friday.” That
was one of the best things that could have happened to him. It pushed him
to a new level of his destiny. But at that time, it didn’t look or feel good.
When you’re hurting and disappointed, every thought tells you, “It’s
not fair, God. Why did You let this happen to me?” I’m asking you to
trust Him. God knows what He’s doing. It may not seem good, but one
day when God brings it all together, you’ll look back and say, “It was a
good Friday.” I couldn’t see it at the time, but it was good when they sold
the properties out from under us. Jesus would say it was good when Judas
betrayed Him. My father would tell you it was good when they pushed
him out of his position.
You may be in a Friday right now—nothing seems good about your
situation. You’re dealing with an illness, or struggling in a relationship,
or have people coming against you. It feels dark, lonely, discouraging.
You don’t see how it could ever work out. Stay in faith. God wouldn’t
have allowed it if it weren’t going to move you forward. You’re in
Friday; the good news is that Sunday is coming, when you’ll see your
resurrection, so to speak. Sunday is when God vindicates you, heals you,
promotes you, restores you. It’s when He prepares a table for you in the
presence of your enemies, when He pays you back double for that
difficulty. That’s what turns defeated Friday into good Friday. No more
betrayed Friday, disappointed Friday. Now it’s blessed Friday, joyful
Friday, victorious Friday.
It’s Not All about Us
A couple would go up to the hospital every week to encourage the
patients. One day the man had just parked his car and was walking across
the street to the hospital’s main entrance. A speeding car came around the
corner, almost out of control, and hit the man. It knocked him up onto the
hood, over the car, and onto the pavement. They rushed him to the
emergency room and discovered that he had bleeding in his brain. They
took a full-body scan to see if anything else was injured, looking for
broken bones or any other bleeding. That was all fine, but they noticed a
tumor on his kidney. When they did a biopsy, they found it was cancer. A
few days after the bleeding stopped, he had surgery to remove the kidney.
Everything went fine, and today he is cancer-free. The doctor told him
that if they had not found that tumor, there was a good chance the cancer
would have spread to other parts of his body and become life-threatening.
Friend, it’s all good—even things that at the time seem bad, such as
getting hit by a car when you’re doing a good deed. Most people would
say, “Boy, you’re unlucky. Too bad for you.” But God doesn’t allow
anything out of which He can’t bring good. We don’t always see it. “Joel,
I’ve had a bunch of things happen to me that did nothing but pull me
down.” You don’t know what God is doing behind the scenes. It may not
have all come together yet. This is what faith is all about. When things
happen that we don’t like—disappointments, betrayals, bad breaks—we
can get negative and live bitter. Or we can say, “God, I trust You. You
know what’s best for me. Even when I don’t understand it, I believe that
when it comes together, it’s going to work for me and not against me.”
Two young college students were traveling to Kenya to work on a
mission project. They were in their early twenties, both former college
basketball players. This was their first trip overseas. They had prayed that
everything would go smoothly. But when the plane tried to land in
London, it was delayed by a heavy fog, and they missed their connecting
flight. They were disappointed, thinking what a poor way this was for
their trip to get started. They had to spend the night trying to sleep in the
airport. The only seats available on the next flight were in first class, so
they were put right up front. About midway through the flight, without
warning the plane took a nosedive and started heading straight toward the
ground. People were panicking and screaming. It looked as though they
were going to die. These young men heard noise in the cockpit that
sounded like a struggle. This was before the 9/11 attacks, when the doors
into the cockpit were not locked. They opened the cockpit door and found
a deranged man had gotten into the cabin and taken over the controls of
the plane. The pilots were trying to pull him off, but they were very small
men and couldn’t budge him. Both of these young men were over six foot
six, big and strong. They grabbed that man, ripped him off the controls,
and tied him up. The plane had descended from thirty thousand feet to
four thousand feet. Another minute or two, and everyone on that flight
would have been killed.
That fog delay and missed connection seemed like a bad thing, but
really it was good. The young men couldn’t see it at the time. They didn’t
like it. Sleeping in the airport didn’t fit into their plans. But God held
them back on purpose so they could save the plane and its passengers.
Sometimes God will inconvenience you in order to help somebody else.
Instead of getting frustrated when our plans don’t work out, we need to
remember it’s not all about us. “I don’t like my job. The people are
negative, they gossip, they compromise. When is God going to move me
out?” Maybe God has you there on purpose to let your light shine. Maybe
He’s counting on you to be a good influence on them. Quit fighting
everything you don’t like. The psalmist said, “The steps of a good person
are ordered by the Lord.” If God has you there, He’s ordered your steps.
You may not like the delays, the inconveniences, and the unfair
situations. It may be uncomfortable, but instead of resisting it, trying to
pray it away, why don’t you embrace it? Say, “God, this is where You
have me right now, so I’m going to be my best. I’m going to have a good
attitude. I may not like it, it may feel bad, but I know a secret: it’s all
good.” It’s not working against you; it’s working for you.
What You Don’t See
Quit fighting everything you don’t like. Quit being upset because you had
a bad break, went through a disappointment, got a medical report that
wasn’t what you’d hoped for. God wouldn’t allow it if it weren’t going to
work for your good. It looks like a setback, but really it’s a setup to move
you into your destiny.
Remember that after Joseph endured thirteen years of betrayals,
disappointments, and lonely nights with a good attitude in an Egyptian
prison, he was made the second-most powerful person in Egypt. Despite
what he went through, he would have told you exactly what he later told
his brothers who had sold him into slavery: it was all good. It was all a
part of the plan. My friends Craig and Samantha, whom I introduced in
the previous chapter, didn’t understand having a child with autism, but
now after starting the Champions Club and helping so many other parents
with special needs children, they would tell you it was all good.
You may not see it right now, but there’s a blessing in the darkness.
When it all comes together, it’s going to work to your advantage. It may
be Friday in your life, with no reason to call what you’re going through
good, but don’t worry, because Sunday is coming. God is still on the
throne. If you’ll stay in faith, everything that was meant to stop you, God
is going to use to push you forward. He’s bringing it all together right
now. Good Friday is coming. Blessed Friday, vindicated Friday, healthy
Friday, victorious Friday is headed your way!
BLESSED IN THE DARKNESS 