So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s (1 Corinthians 3:21-23).

This has been a precious statement to me once I understood what it meant. At first glance this can look somewhat like a “name-it-claim-it” statement where we declare that we possess things because we are a Christian.

When Paul is saying that “all things are yours,” it is not possessive. I can’t say, “I can have that car in the name of Jesus.” “All things are yours” means that every circumstance serves you. And the people that God puts in your life serve you. The people and circumstances don’t serve you because you have power over them, but they serve your ultimate good, whether they are good or bad.

This is only possible because you are in Christ, if you have trusted in Him. Everything is serving Christ, and since you are in Christ, everything is serving you, like a servant to a master. So all the good things and the bad things are your servant for your good.

Everything, good and ill, serves Christ’s purposes. All those who have trusted in Christ are now fully identified with him so that their life perfectly plays out exactly as Jesus wants. They no longer have to worry abut getting life right, because they are right in Christ Jesus. They no longer have to toil painfully for life to be good. The God of the universe now takes personal responsibility to see that good will happen to all those who trust in Him.

So what circumstance and person can now get you down? For even if life is not turning out the way you dreamed, you can be assured that God is working something good beyond your wildest dreams.