Up front I have to admit that I am a huge fan of Spaghetti Westerns, and so when the thought hit me the other morning while reading the Word I wasn’t surprised… I do have a strange way of seeing some things!
The Lord has been preparing me to begin writing a new book, which snuck up on me. The teaching He has been taking me through for the past several years with respect to our walk through this life with Him has, as you know by now, centered on Romans 8:29 and other scriptures reflecting the same message. I have been studying 1 Corinthians and consistently throughout the Holy Spirit has been helping me to better understand the challenges and trials we go through and how we need to see them; through His eyes. And that brings me to the title of this post… The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!
No matter how hard we try to focus on the first and avoid the last two it never works out that way. If it were all good then where would the challenges be, the challenges that the Lord uses to deal with those old fleshly issues that are holding us back. These are the very issues that our old nature keeps reflecting back on… often at the suggestion of the enemy himself! These are the issues that open us up to past (forgiven sins) that continually seem to tempt us.
In my life, God has used the Good to remind me of His presence and His promises to me, especially the one that He will never leave me nor forsake me no matter how bad it gets or how far a drift away. At the same time He uses the Bad and the Ugly to file off the rough those issues that are keeping me from moving ever closer to Him, becoming more like Him (Rom 8:29). It’s in the midst of those challenges that the Holy Spirit is able to accomplish His greatest work in us… if we are His partner in the process! And that’s where the rub is, isn’t it? That’s what Paul expressed to us in so many ways:
1 Cor 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
Phil 4:12-13 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
James 1:2-6 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
And Peter…
1 Peter 1:6-7 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
And the list goes on for many scriptures, with the purpose being the same in virtually every case… it’s part of the process of being conformed into His image.
So, though it’s easy to accept the Good, we need to remember to replace our complaining about the Bad and the Ugly with one simple question… Lord, what are you revealing to me, what are you asking me to trust to You? And we can stand on His promise that He will grant us the wisdom we need to get our answer. Yes, I know, it may take (and usually does) longer than we want to get that wisdom, that answer. But then, where would be our faith, where would be the cementing of that lesson into our spirit, where would be the change in us that brings Glory to God as we take one more step closer to Jesus? Remember Job? There is nothing that is happening to us that either God has brought about or that He allows.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly… it really all does seem like a bowl of spaghetti!