Bitter Ingredients, Tasty Products

I am continually intrigued by how many physical things in life are pictures of spiritual realities.  Randy Alcorn is especially adept at bringing those things to light.  I'm reading in his book, "90 Days of God's Goodness", and his devotional thought is based on Psalm 71:18-23, especially the verse, "Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again."  He gives just a slightly different, but important, perspective to the Romans 8:28 truth that "all things work together for good." He says, "There is an all-inclusiveness In the 'all things'...  No translation says each thing by itself IS good, but that all things work together FOR good, and not on their own, but under God's sovereign hand.  Romans 8:28 declares a cumulative and ultimate good, not an individual or immediate good".

Then he goes into the analogy of how each individual ingredient of a cake (well, with the exception of sugar, I suppose) tastes horrible by itself, but "put together in the right amounts and baked together, a remarkable metamorphosis takes place.  The cake tastes delicious!  Yet judging by the taste of each component, I would never have believed the cake could taste so good.

"In a similar way, the individual ingredients of trials and apparent tragedies taste bitter to us.  Romans 8:28 doesn't tell me I should say 'it is good,' if my leg breaks, or my house burns down....  But no matter how bitter the taste of the individual components, God can carefully measure out and mix all ingredients together and regulate the temperature to produce a wonderful final product."

As his wife, Joy, underwent cancer treatments, C. S. Lewis wrote to a friend, "We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be."

It is extremely important to the health of our faith to remember this truth!  Life is not just random happenings.  Our Creator God is intimately involved in our lives, and He is all wise, all powerful, and all good!  That's an unbeatable combination!!!