Actually I do understand. I have been there and done that. I was 51 years old and had destroyed just about everything in my life that I valued. Everywhere I looked it was devastation and destruction. However as I look back on it, I praise God for all the failure, destruction and devastation that happened. If it were not for it I would never have come to the end of myself and my resources and I would never have experienced the peace, freedom and joy I have today. I would not have known who I was in Christ (righteous, holy and blameless) and that I was dead to the power of sin and complete in Christ; and had everything I needed for life and godliness and needed nothing else. I would not have the understanding of grace that I don't have to do anything; that God has done it all and all I have to do is trust Him and rest in Him, because the truth is that I am in Christ and He lives in me and is my life whether I act like it, look like it or feel like it. I certainly would not have a marriage or the ministry I have that gives me fulfillment. I thank God for my failure and brokenness. Of course I agree with a friend who said, "I wouldn't take a million dollars for my experience of brokenness, but you couldn't give me two million to go through it again".

    I am convinced that you and I and my daughter and her children are right where we are supposed to be and God not only doesn't waste anything, but is working ALL things for our good. I'm struggling financially and my daughter and her three girls who were left in a very bad place when her ex-husband ended up in prison is really struggling. I firmly believe that God doesn't waste anything and redeems everything and uses all (even our sin and failure) for good. It has been 22 years since I emerged from the nightmare of my sin, failure and destruction.  I wouldn't change a thing and it has not been all good for me. We live in a fallen world with fallen people. We have a powerful enemy who lies to us constantly and accuses us relentlessly. Satan is the ruler of this world and when we try to find life (meaning and purpose) in this world we find nothing but death and destruction. Only in Christ is there real LIFE and peace and joy. And the great, grand, glorious truth is we are in Christ and He is in us. We are not citizens of this world and it is not going to be easy for us. The bible says that life is like a vapor. Vapors don't last long, but you and I are in Christ who is eternal life. Jesus said,  “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33). As I approach the ripe old age of 73 I often turn to passage below for encouragement in the face of financial problems, declining health, and my daughter and her daughter’s situation. 

  But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;  persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.   We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.  For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.  It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Cor. 4:7-18). 

    As I told a friend of mine this morning, "Every day and every way I'm getting better and better". Well not exactly but you get the idea. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Rom. 8:31, 32). Now I would have to admit it really doesn't feel or look like it most days, but I think it is a matter of perspective. Am I looking at myself, my situation, the world and those around me to find meaning and purpose or am I looking to Jesus?

    One of the most liberating truths I have learned is that Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1). It really doesn't make any difference what you have done or not done, where you have been, or where you are now. God has taken care of it all through His finished work on the cross. Sin and failure and are no longer the issue. They have been dealt with. The issue is truth and reality, but many Christians seem to live in deception not believing any of the truth stated above. Their focus is on what they see; their circumstances, feelings, what others say, etc., which is a surefire prescription for defeat and depression. It would appear that these Christians have not read the end of the Book and don't know that Jesus has been raised from the dead and they were raised with Him, that we have been crucified to the world and the world to us; that Satan has been disarmed and defeated and Christ is Victor. And since we are in Christ and He is in us we have been given the victory and we are victors. Can a Christian be defeated? It may look like defeat and feel like it, but we are in The Victor and He always leads us in triumph in Christ (2 Cor. 2:14). WE WIN!!!

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15:57)