“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them”. (Romans 8:28)

Has anyone ever quoted you this bible verse as if to say, “Don’t worry.  Everything will be fine.  God will take this situation and make it all better.  He will fix whatever (insert sickness, grief, problem here.)”  This bible verse is very often quoted by Christians as a band-aid, as a promise that everything will work out for good. I have had my world crumble around me in death and in sickness and many times questioned where the goodness was in that.

Today I am not going to tell you that everything is going to be ok but I will instead share with you the lesson that I have learned about this bible verse and challenge your way of thinking.

Roman 8:28 isn’t a promise that the bad will go away, or even that you will be protected from the bad.  Instead it is a promise that everything in our lives, the good and yes, the bad, will come together for good.  You may be asking, how can God take what I am going through and make it good, there is no way that this can end well. You don’t understand the depth of my loss, the magnitude of my hurt.  I have been there and I would tell you that when you find yourself at that threshold of helplessness and hopelessness, if you choose to turn to God as your source of comfort and strength, your source of help and hope, you have found the good.  If, in your losses you can learn to trust God for everything, you have found the good.  The situation may not end immediately but in the very act of turning to God, you have found the good.  In leaning on God and allowing His grace to carry you through you have found the good.   This is a choice we must make, it is an all-in attitude. Because I have chosen to live this way in spite of the curveballs life has thrown me I have come to personally understand God’s purpose in our trials. He desires to create Christ-like character in us, to bring us into harmony with His will for us.  He is interested in a “better us,” not in providing an easier path.

Notice how this works though, God causes…this is not about us.  This is about God.  He is the one who takes the bad and makes it good, takes the ugly and makes it beautiful, takes my mess of a life and creates a story that glorifies Him.  We can’t do any of this on our own. This is a position of total surrender, of dying to yourself, when we stop wrestling with the will of God and start walking in it, whether we like where the path is leading or not.  If we can just let go we can have so much more.  Much easier said than done, I am the first to admit.  I am a work in progress…

David Jeremiah said that “God is up to something when He sends trouble our way…When you have the wisdom borne of suffering, you begin to have the tools to accomplish something in the world.”  This is how when things are falling apart, they may truly be falling into place.