It All Works For Our Good

You say, what about war or illness or an accident or the death of a loved one--how can these things possibly work to my good?  Well, I cannot answer that in detail, but I can tell you something that will include every eventuality and possibility.  If you really believe in God, anything that may happen to you will drive you nearer to God, and anything that drives you nearer to him is a "good" thing for you.  I will apply this to your experience as I apply it to my own; let us be frank and honest.  When life is running smoothly and easily, and the sun is shining in the heavens, and everything is going well, how easy it is to forget all about God.  We do not seem to need him, and we forget him, and we are far away from him.  But then something goes wrong--there is an announcement of war, or there is trouble or an accident--and these things drive me back to my knees.  I then get nearer to God, and "It is good for me that I have been afflicted" because "before I was afflicted I went astray" (Psalm 119:71, 67).  Each one of us can echo the sentiment of the psalmist.  God sometimes has to chastise us in order to draw us a little nearer to himself.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled, p.41