Because God is for me, He often lets me fail and fall, to teach me truth

God is for me; who can stand against me?

Just because God is for me does not mean He is for all that things I am for.

Because God is for me, he often lets me fail and fall, to teach me truth.

“If God is for us, who can be against us?”  Romans 8:31b

In the midst of the struggle, as His children, we have a great Defender.  If we have surrendered our lives to Almighty God and received the gift of salvation that comes to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus, God’s only son, we have this great comfort and hope.  Pain may come – hard trials – but in all these things God is still “for” us.  He is still loving us beyond measure.  He is still working things for our good and His glory.  We can’t always understand the process but we can trust it.  The hard things come to purify us, to pull out the residual or deep seeded sins in our lives and to get rid of them.  They come to solidify beyond all odds the faith the God places in our hearts and to show and prove the trustworthiness and glory and grace of God.

This being stated – just because God is for me does not mean that He is for all the things I’m for.  It does not mean that in all situations that “God is on my side”.   God is for me and for what is best for me.  This is not always what I think is best for me.  We can come to God in boldness with our requests for the situations in our lives – but we must also come to the point of coming surrendered to His will.  This is not to say we should water down our prayers by not asking – but that while coming with boldness and honesty and authenticity about what we want or think we need, we also come in the confidence that He will override and do what is best for us and for His glory to be made known in the earth.  As others have stated, God is not a vending machine where we enter prayers and get what we want.  It’s a relationship and one of deep trust. 

Sometimes God allows us to fall and to fail as we try to walk on our own, in our own strength, thinking we know better than he does what is needful in our situation (not that we ever say that out loud).  It is often in the falling and in the failing that we are refined.  This is where we learn truths that can’t be learned any other way.  We don’t understand the complications of brokenness in situations until we have been in them, or at least until someone we dearly love is in them.  We don’t learn to trust God *no matter what* until we have to trust Him when we don’t see things clearly…when they actually make no sense to our finite eyes.  Our God is faithful to walk with us through and into these things.  I’m not saying He always leads us there; I think we can find enough trouble on our own in this broken, sinful world.  I’m saying He is not afraid of it; He is not afraid to walk right into the mess with us and teach us and train us and grow us up in the process. 

After all, He is for us.  He who chose us will also justify and glorify us.  

He will never leave or forsake us.  Nothing can separate us from His love. 

What can we say in response to these things?  It leaves me thankful and speechless.

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