About Pastor Rick Warren

Get guidance on Bible study from C.S. Lewis - Free Course!
<< Daily Hope with Rick Warren

God Uses Your Problems for Good - Daily Hope with Rick Warren - August 16, 2019

God Uses Your Problems for Good

By Rick Warren

“Even though you are temporarily harassed by all kinds of trials . . . This is no accident—it happens to prove your faith, which is infinitely more valuable than gold” (1 Peter 1:6-7 PHILLIPS).

Life is not a series of random, freak accidents. Life is not totally unplanned. Life is not without meaning. God knows what’s going on.

God is weaving the tapestry of your life, and it includes light and dark threads—happy and sad times—to produce richness and texture and color. Nothing can come into the life of a child of God without God’s permission. Everything is Father‑filtered.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that everything that happens to you in life is God’s perfect will. That’s just not true. There are a lot of things that are not God’s will. If you go out and sin, that’s not God’s will. If somebody sins against you, that’s not God’s perfect will.

But God does have a permissive will. If I go out and overeat, I pay the consequences. If I go out and wreck my body, I pay the consequences. God does not cause evil, and God does not cause suffering. But he does allow those things because they have a purpose. God permits them, and then he uses them.

God is an expert at bringing good out of bad. He could have kept Paul out of prison in Philippi, but instead he let Paul go to prison, and the jailer became a believer as a result. God could have kept Jesus from the cross, but he let him go. He let his own Son suffer and die. Did God bring any good out of that? I’d say he did!

God loves to turn crucifixions into resurrections. The things you most wish were removed from your life are often the very things that God uses to shape you and make you into the believer he wants you to be. He wants to use that problem for good in your life. There’s something more important than your pain: what you’re learning from that pain. God is in control.

So how can we respond to painful or difficulty situations? The apostle Paul says, “Never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17 NLT).

PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick

For more Daily Hope with Rick Warren, please visit pastorrick.com!


God has a plan for you . . . find out what it is!

Discover God’s extraordinary purpose for your life in Pastor Rick Warren’s What On Earth Am I Here For? study kit. This 6-message DVD series plus study guide includes strong biblical truth and practical ways to apply it, helping you:

• Learn how to build meaningful relationships
• Discern how God has equipped you to serve others
• Embrace his purpose for your life
• Prepare for the mission God created you to fulfill

We’ll send you the What on Earth Am I Here For? study kit to thank you for your gift to Daily Hope today.

Your partnership helps reach even more people worldwide with the love and hope of Jesus Christ!

*The USA IRS code permits you to deduct the amount of your financial gift to Daily Hope that exceeds the fair market value of materials you received from Daily Hope.

This devotional © 2018 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

You can listen to Rick Warren on OnePlace.com.



More Daily Hope with Rick Warren Articles