Your Master Craftsman – Part One

Jesus is there for us when life comes crashing down. He is there with us when life’s expectancy is exceeded and our accomplishments go beyond our wildest imagination. He is our companion in the shadows and the sunlight. 

Jesus lives to work by His Spirit in every event of your life. He was a realist. He never tried to con people into following Him by offering them health, wealth, and prosperity. He never tried to buy our loyalty. With candor he warned: “In this world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16: 33).

You have the potential of joining the all time overcomers championship team called “the Christians.” Hear the following as though spoken in our spiritual locker room:

“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world; our faith” (I John 5:4).

As part of His farewell address Jesus exalted: “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne” (Rev 3:21).

This affords every believer great confidence, even holy boldness.

Upon hearing this some people respond, “I just can’t see how!”  They can’t see because they don’t know.

Many people develop a negative attitude because they don’t know foundational truth.  Students of conversation have concluded that over 90% of the average person’s conversation is negative.  Think about that. Many seem not to be able to wait until they can drop the next negative nugget.

Their world is like the granddad who took a nap in his favorite chair. His mischievous grandchildren were intrigued by his handlebar mustache. While he napped they rubbed limburger cheese in his mustache. Soon he was awakened by the odor and exclaimed, “This room smells bad.” He rushed out doors and rapidly concluded, “The whole world stinks.”

Even in our odorous world “All things work together for good.”

Let’s not be pretentious and advocate that everything that happens is good. The text doesn’t say that. Reality reveals not all things are good.

When the cumulative effect is applied we can see how they work together for good. An insight into how the cumulative effect works can be illustrated. Start with one penny and double it every day for 30 days. Sounds simple doesn’t. The first day there is one penny. Day two there are two pennies. Day three there are four. God the picture! Keep that up for 30 days and guess what the cumulative effect is. In 30 days you would have 536,870,912 pennies or $5,368,709.12.  Little things add up.

When the events of life are added up they work together for good.

“Work together” is present tense meaning they keep working together for good.  That results in trust of the Lord. Evaluate what is going on in your life in light of that.