Lesson 28: Be an Overcomer (3)
Read Romans 8:18-39 - https://www.bible.com/bible/59/rom.8

The second reason why God allows bad things to happen is that He uses everything around us as tools or influences to shape us and build us into what He wants us to be. Just as medical treatment at times is painful in order to bring healing, so God's treatment of us is at times painful so He can heal our spirit and build us into the likeness of Christ.

It is then our responsibility to look at painful circumstances around us to see if God is trying to remove some cancer from our spiritual life. What is God trying to teach me? What is God trying to wean me from? What is God asking me to give up? What is God trying to prepare me for? The answers must, of course, be sought at God's feet. In every case we can be certain God is giving us the opportunity to build our faith. Every storm blowing across the oak’s branches forces it to send its roots deeper for greater strength. We must be sensitive to God and allow Him to build our faith in the same way. We must not expend our energy in bitterness. If we can save the energy we spend in questioning and use it in the building process instead, we will benefit at God's hands more than we could ever imagine.


Please don't get me wrong; God wants us to come to Him when we have questions about what He is doing in our lives. Do not just blindly believe that if you have enough faith you won't question Him. This is not at all the point of this lesson! The point is to seek at God's feet that strength, that faith, that assurance which allows the building process to continue.

Our final responsibility to God’s grace and mercy is complete gratitude and submission. God’s grace and mercy alone are responsible for our salvation. Had He not chosen to display them, we would have had no chance because at the first sin we committed we would have been dead. Our only response to such grace and mercy can be falling at His feet and crying out with Isaiah that we are unworthy (Isaiah 6:5). Our only sacrifice, sufficient to this gift, is complete abdication of all we are and have to His control. Our only desire can be for His will to be done in our lives. Our only goal is that He is glorified in all we do, and that no place we go, no word we speak, no thing we do can be so unless it accomplishes His purpose. Even the piece of chocolate we pop in our mouth must be for God’s glory – a little taste of enjoying Him…forever!

Can we live this way? Not in our own strength – we need His help. And this acknowledgement, too, brings glory to God because it states that He is all and in all (Ephesians 4:6; Colossians 3:11).

Dig deeper: write down your answers to the following:
*What is the believer’s relationship to sin? - Romans 6:1-4
*What is the believer’s experience with sin? - Romans 7:21-25
*What is the believer’s victory over sin? - Romans 8