God is Building a Palace

Wisdom from C.S. Lewis:

Something Beautiful

By Bill and Gloria Gaither


Something beautiful, something good
All my confusion
He understood.
All I had to offer Him
Was brokenness and strife
But He made something beautiful
Of my life

The Eyes of Faith

When God rescued me, it meant seeing things differently. Surrendering my life to God gave me great peace. Suddenly, I realized that He was in charge of my life. This was a great relief since what I had been doing to run my life wasn't working for me any more. In living my life without God, I learned to be self sufficient and independent. I relied on what the "experts" said about the world: what's right and what's wrong, what my priorities should be, how to make certain that my future was secure, how to live a long and happy life. These "experts" of the world said, "Nothing can stop you. Whatever you want in life, you can make it happen." In believing these things, my eyes were blinded to the possibility of God. Everything was logical and orderly until the crisis came. Then, what was working before no longer helped. When God came into my life, He changed the way I saw everything. All the things that had happened in my life, and all the things that would happen in my life had passed through the very hands of God and were meant for my good and His glory. Everything. Divorce, unemployment, an empty bank account, the IRS, a late house payment. Things no longer "just happened", but the great purpose of God was behind everything. I began to think that God could, and would, make something beautiful out of my mess. And He did.

New Lenses

The Other Side of the Coin

Just as we cannot understand why God allows bad things to happen to good people, we cannot fully understand the love of God for us. Can anyone comprehend the kind of love that would cause a father to give his only son as a sacrifice for the whole world? For people who despise the name of the one who died for them? For people like me, who sometimes take that sacrifice for granted?
I love this prayer that the Apostle, Paul prayed for the Church at Ephesus:
“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19)
Why God chooses to love us--in spite of our selfish, self-centered ways--is a mystery as deep and unfathomable as why He allows suffering in this world. His ways are so much higher than our ways. Can we accept His love without accepting the fact that He is sovereign and sometimes that involves pain that we cannot understand?

The Hardest Question

Why do bad things happen to good people? A friend passed away recently of a horrible disease. A middle aged couple died in a fiery crash a few months ago. A tiny baby was found to have a heart defect just last week. What is God up to? Why does He allow these things? How do we settle that question in our heart? How do we believe that the God of the Universe is a loving and a good God who cares for His creation as a father cares for his children? There are more questions than answers.

God has told us in His Word that "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." What does this mean? It means we cannot understand His actions and His purposes because He is God and we do not have His understanding. He sees the whole picture--we see only a tiny part. It means we have to have faith--faith to believe that what God says about himself in the Bible is true. He is good, He is loving, He is merciful, He is faithful, He is forgiving. Have I seen evidence of these things in my life? The answer is "yes"--many times over.

Here's the question:

Would you rather believe that the bad things that happen in our lives are just random--that they have no meaning or purpose?

Or would you choose to believe that God, in His infinite wisdom, knows what He is doing? That even though it is painful and impossible for us to understand, God has a higher purpose in our suffering or the suffering of others. Could you dare to believe that something good can come out of tragedy?

It's really an issue of acceptance--some people deny the existence of God because they cannot explain everything that He does. Can we accept the fact that there is not an answer for everything that happens in life? A strong and godly woman, Elisabeth Elliot, penned these wise words: "In acceptance lies peace." May we all find peace in the midst of pain.

Getting A New Perspective on My Life