Genesis 50:20
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

Okay, so I've never been blackmailed. Perhaps if I was filthy rich someone might try. They could send me one of those ransom notes with the letters cut out of different magazines and demand that I pay them a lot of money by midnight of the next fifth Wednesday or else my secret would be made public. I guess it would probably help if I had a secret. Something like photographic evidence that I once dressed up like a girl. Oops, I guess that's not a secret anymore. Oh, well. You get the idea.

Most of us, in our lifetimes (and especially after our lifetimes because we'll be dead and who would ever blackmail a dead person), will never be blackmailed like that. But all of us are blackmailed everyday by an enemy who desires to scare us into giving him whatever he wants. "If you keep living radically for Jesus," he wheezes, "then I'll make sure they know what you've done." Usually, we fall for it. We get the cash out of the bank and pay the devil off no matter how much he wants. "Oh, I'll do anything, sir, if you just won't tell them <<FILL IN YOUR SECRET HERE>>!" We live our lives afraid of a defeated blackmailer, who, when the truth is actually told, has been humilated at the cross. The secret we fear has already been exposed and forgiven.

Satan means to harm us, but in the end he can't because what he means for harm, God is able to turn around and use for good. That's the kind of God you and I serve. He is able to take the events of our lives that were intended to hurt us and scare us and blackmail us and turn them into the very thing that can be used to accomplish His purpose. It's all pretty cool stuff and it makes the devil look like a fool because he's sending out ransom notes and the kidnapped secret has already been rescued. Of course, we'd look sort of foolish, too, if we paid the ransom to a kidnapper after we'd already had the stolen item returned, wouldn't we?

No more. The same God who redeemed us can redeem our secrets, too. Now we can rip those ransom notes up, sit back, and watch God accomplish good through them.

After all, our God is that good.