When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.  When the going gets tough, the tough get going.  Every cloud has a silver lining.  It’s not about the cards you’re dealt, but about how you play the hand. 

Each of these statements are familiar sayings in our society that have to do with making the best of a bad situation.  We have all had to do this at one time or another—we have all had to make lemonade when life has given us lemons.  And all of us know stories of people who have overcome great adversity and have made great work of the worst of situations.  There are many stories in our world of people who played a bad hand well—who found the silver lining in a tough situation.

We learn in Scripture that our God works in this way as well.  We learn all throughout His Word that he makes the best work of the worst of situations.  His book is filled with story after story of Him working in and through dark and difficult situations to bring about the best, most glorious and god-honoring ends.  This is the work that our God delights in doing.  He delights in taking broken and messed up situations and restoring and redeeming them and using them for good and for His purposes and for His glory. 

We are given a great example of this in Acts 8.  After God’s great servant Stephen is stoned to death and Christian persecution breaks out all over Jerusalem, we are told that God works in and through it to take His message of salvation out of Jerusalem and out into the world.  He makes great work of this horrible situation.  He uses persecution to spread His Gospel.