Short story: Life is full of good experiences. Everything works towards the good
By emptychair
@innertalks (23744)
Australia
August 2, 2023 2:08am CST
Rabbi Shemlick Tomlinson, had just made this bold statement to his students:
"All experiences, even the seemingly negative ones, are really for the best.”
Then, he backed up his remark, with the following assertions too:
"God is ultimately in charge of everything, and he puts his energy to every event to turn it into good from whatever it was before."
"The Devil's doings, your own mistakes, all things come together in God for good."
"On the other hand, though, in our own personal lives, we should strive to grow into our full strengths, or try to realise our potential, in this life."
"Just because God turns everything to good, does not mean that we should not try to live good lives for him too."
"We should strive to be good to all around us, in our lives."
"Even as goodness is a part of who God is, we too, should make goodness a part of our own nature too."
"In the book of Psalms, in our Bible, we find this verse, in Psalm 145, verse 9:"
"'The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all of His works."'
"And so, my young friends, try to allow every experience in your life to be a good experience, by seeing the good in it, and by seeing God's hand in the experience, turning it to good too."
"When others treat as badly, God can turn that experience into good."
"Here is how Saint Paul put this idea, in Romans, chapter 8, verse 28."
"'And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."'
"God, for now, is allowing evil to keep existing to bring about a greater good, in the long run."
"At a later time, all sin and evil, will be gone, and all of God's creation will exist as pure goodness, once more again."
A long time ago, the great Chinese Sage, Lao Tzu said:
"'Treat those who are good with goodness, and also treat those who are not good with goodness. Thus goodness is attained. Be honest to those who are honest, and be also honest to those who are not honest. Thus honesty is attained."'
"And this is still true today."
And so ended the good Rabbi's talk to his students for today.
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
God can turn every experience into good.
3 people like this
3 responses
@just4him (323168)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
2 Aug 23
I'm reminded of the account of Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers who sold him into Egypt. He told them in Genesis 50:19-20 He told them not to be afraid of him because he was not in the place of God. He further told them that what they meant for evil, God turned to good to save the people of Israel.
3 people like this
@innertalks (23744)
• Australia
2 Aug 23
Yes, God is always working to turning bad/evil experiences to good, in our lives, if we stay loyal and loving to him too, as Joseph did in the Bible story of him, and his brothers too.
In Joseph's case, this good also affected the evil-doers too, and led them to remorse for what they had done. God knew that later they would repent of their evil deeds, and so he built his plan around all of these things happening too.
God turns things around so that good results from evil intent, like this.
@Shiva49 (28394)
• Singapore
2 Aug 23
God has put a lot of thought to make our lives interesting.
It would not have been a cakewalk for him as we are at the apex of his creation but way below him, of course.
That does not prevent a few with a take they are the lord of all they survey!
My take has always been we cannot avoid misfortune but we can brace ourselves to face them.
It is how we get up after each fall that builds our character.
We need to take it that God has not done with us yet with more to come.
That is life on the edge at times but also character-building at play.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23744)
• Australia
3 Aug 23
Yes, to draw ourselves out of ourselves, God has to squeeze us tight, and evil can press us from all sides, but if we remain good and faithful to God, only more good and faithfulness, will be squeezed into us from God, as evil, and sin, is also blocked by God allowing such a narrow connection to exist between him, and ourselves.
We feel the narrow path, and connection, as pressure pressing in on us, from the world, from our own thoughts, and from our trying to understand, and further connect to God too.
Pressure comes at us from all sides then, but like the pressure cooker, we can still cook something good, for God, for ourselves, and for others, from all of this pressure, being applied to us in our lives.
@innertalks (23744)
• Australia
4 Aug 23
@Shiva49 Yes, we should assist God in his plan, as best we can do so, and not be a loose spanner in his works, undoing his good works, with our own self- interested doings instead.
@Shiva49 (28394)
• Singapore
3 Aug 23
@innertalks Trust in our creator to guide us come what may.
He has a plan which we are not privy to or will understand.
There are wheels within wheels in creation but he knows how to get things in good order.
The least we can do is put our shoulders on the giant wheel and not the spokes.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23744)
• Australia
2 Aug 23
Yes, it is a good explanation as to why evil, and sin, still exist in the world.
God is getting his plan fulfilled by allowing these things to be for now, so that we all have the chance to denounce evil, and to embrace the good, and to be able to gain the wisdom to be able to differentiate the difference between good and evil too, from our living now, and being able to see both good and evil, existing all around us.
