Amanda Elliott is a grateful believer in Jesus Christ, wife, mom, business owner and Benton resident. She believes we are each “built to battle” by a perfect creator who made us with a capacity for victory, a handbook for success (the Bible) and a spirit who empowers us to live in peace and joy. Follow Amanda Elliott’s “Built to Battle” column at www.mysaline.com/amanda.
God will work it out.
Your good and His glory will never and have never contradicted each other.
Read that again.
If it looks unredeemed, it means it’s unfinished. And living in the space of the unfinished is hard.
I have done it before. Am doing it now (my sweet momma is being treated for cancer — my husband and I have both walked the journey of cancer, chemo and surgeries, death of loved ones, divorces, debt, hurt, unknown, unemployment). And each of us will live again in the unfinished before we see Him face to face.
It’s easier said than done to trust in the valley of “not yet.” (Especially when it lasts years. Hurts deep. Looks broken beyond repair. Beyond any sort of redemption. Even from God Himself.)
Romans 8 is a powerful chapter filled with verses we quote often. In there is nestled the one verse that I have quoted at the very worst of times.
When my heart was betrayed
When my spirit was broken
When the doctor said “your husband has lymphoma”
When the other doctor said “you have breast cancer”
When I couldn’t find a job
When I couldn’t find my purpose
When the bank account said you won’t make it to the end of the month (or end of the day)
When the enemy said I was unforgivable
When my past said I would pay forever
Romans 8:28 says:
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
This gives me one job and God every single thing else. Love God. Period.
In a world that is full of decisions (most of which feel so very complicated), I breathe deep and easy knowing my job: to love God. And He makes it an easy one.
When the hurt and confusion of this life knock at your door, answer with this verse. And watch the focus shift, the victory break through.
When they called me for the biopsy results last year (I was 27 weeks pregnant with a husband in chemo) I could only eke out a few words when I hung up the phone and they were: “all things work together. All. All. All things. All things work together.”
Your thing doesn’t have a footnote that says “God can work together everyone else’s thing, but not yours. In the history of the world, your thing is too big for Him.”
Today speak Romans 8:28 in the midst of the thing. Knowing that He truly is working it all together even when we can’t see it.