Have you ever gone through a difficult time and some well-meaning person quotes Roman 8:28?
I want to talk about that today. What does God mean when he says “All things work together for good”? If He means, as we often assume, that good circumstances will arise from bad ones, that a “happy ending” will come to our earthly story, that the sickness will go away, the heartache will be mended, the betrayal be made right…then something has gone REALLY wrong. Because sometimes bad things just happen. Even to good people. And there doesn’t seem to be anything “good” about it.
To understand this verse, we need to understand the word “good”. If we come in believing that word means “made right”, then we will be frustrated. There is nothing “right” about a loved one dying of cancer, of a father leaving his family, of the betrayal of a friend. Those are awful. Terrible. Bad.
Instead
of “good”, the word may be best understood “profitable” or “useful”.
We must remember that, when the “terrible” happens, God is still in control. He CAN bring beauty from ashes, He can bring good from evil.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean He will change our circumstances.
What it means is He will change our hearts. He will use those instances in our lives to allow us to know Him better, to know His word better, to become better acquainted with His character. He will equip us to help others going through similar circumstances, and He will remind us this world is NOT our home.
Some of us need to stop being angry and bitter because the bad in our lives doesn’t seem to be working out for good. We need to define “good” properly. We need to surrender to God’s sovereignty. We need to long for heaven and store our treasures there.
We need to ask God how He wants to shape us through the “bad” that comes into our lives. How can we grow from this? How can we know Him better? How can we serve others as a result of the trials we have faced? “Bad” can be made useful and profitable if surrendered to the Lord of All. So surrender!
