"Some times a little bad happens before the greater good...!"

This past weekend, someone pulled out in front of my son's truck, the damage probably a total loss.... not having full coverage, and living in the 'no fault state' brought us to the realization that this was going to be costly. After finding out that the repair would cost more than the trucks worth, we began to look for another inexpensive car... The dealer of one of the cars we looked at (after we told him of our loss), instead of selling us the car at his profit, he instead told us of a friend that could fix my son's truck... for more than half of our other estimate.... we were back in business.

Finding the good can be a challenge, but Scripture confirms that God uses bad circumstances for good purposes.

In 2 Kings 5, we find two people who had bad things happen to them. First is a young girl from Israel who was taken captive by the Syrian army. Second is Naaman, the commander of the army, who had leprosy. Even though the girl had good reason to desire bad things for her captors, she offered help instead. "Israel’s prophet Elisha," she said, "could heal" Naaman. Eager to be cured, Naaman went to Israel. However, he was reluctant to follow Elisha’s humiliating directions. When he finally did, he was healed, which caused him to proclaim that Israel’s God is the only God (v.15).

God used two bad things—a kidnapping and a deadly disease—to change Israel’s enemy into a friend. Even when we don’t know why something bad has happened, we know that God has the power to use it for good.