2 Peter 3:9, New Living Standard

"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."

Mistakes? We all make them. But God can use them for our good and for His good will.

Because God governs everything that comes across our paths, no experience is ever wasted. It can all be used to turn us to Christ because ultimately, He works all things for good. Our difficult circumstances can cultivate a dependence on Christ. It can teach us to pray more fervently. It can give us the opportunity for ministry. Our successes can lead us to praise and thank God. To give Him glory. To see our sin of pride and confess it. To learn humility. Everything can be a stepping stone to holiness.

Have you ever been at the end of your rope? Where you cannot take any more? I know I have. But, when we are at the end of our rope, we are actually blessed. What? That doesn't sound right in a worldly sense. But in God’s economy, being blessed takes on new meaning. We are blessed when we have no human resources. When we have nothing of our own to turn to. No human to rely on. When nothing seems to be going well. That is when God and his rule increases in our life. There are less of us. And more of God. When we lose what is most dear to us on earth, we value our heavenly Father’s embrace even more. His embrace is more dear, more precious, more spectacular than anything we could possibly have lost.

When I understand that everything happening to me is to make me more Christlike, it resolves a great deal of anxiety.

Everything that is happening to me is to make me more Christlike. Nothing is excluded. Joy and pain. Peace and turmoil. Fullness and emptiness. Suffering and ease. People who love and care for me. And people who hurt or ignore me.

God may be doing something far more important and more lasting in me than what is happening to me.

Everything that we face can make us more like Christ. Our annoyances can reveal our sin. People who hurt us give us opportunities to forgive. Our physical ailments teach us to depend on God. Everything that is hard and seems wrong in our lives is a divine invitation to turn to God.

To fully live out that perspective, we need to be present each moment. To actively seek out and ask God what he is trying to show us. To be aware that God is always at work in our lives and to trust that every circumstance can draw us closer to Him.

God has a good plan for your life, even when you can’t see it. And Scripture tells us that all our experiences—even the bad ones—are in God’s hands.

All things can, and will, be used by God to accomplish his good purposes for the everlasting joy and glory of his people.

We can sorrowfully dwell on the worst decisions we ever made, or we can learn from them and know that despite bad decisions, God can use it all for our benefit and His glory. Do we make mistakes? Yes, but God . . .