And we know that in all things
God works for the good of those
who love him, who have been called
according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
Bible Rank: 14
This is one of the most misunderstand passages in Scripture.
In fact, some Christians accidentally use it as a hammer!
The reasoning goes like this …
1. If God is active (and he is)
2. And if God is in control (and he is)
3. And if God is good (and he is)
4. And if God works all things for good for those who love him (and he does)
5. Then if whatever you are experience must be God’s plan for you.
6. So suck it up.
Five and six don’t necessarily follow from one, two, three, and four … even though sometimes it may seem like simple math.
Why?
Because of sin! The fact that God is in control doesn’t negate that he also allows us to be free. For example, if a man is free to drink and free to drive, he is equally free to crash into my car … and paralyze me … and kill my wife. (God forbid! But who would have caused this?) It’s not God who causes those horrors.
Yes, even though the Lord is “in control,” his control also allows choices and sin and paralysis and death. (It may not be how you’d run the world or how you’d like it to be run, but the incongruency of a good God and a great deal of pain reveals that this is how things work.)
· Paralysis, likely, is not God’s plan for me (though I wouldn’t quit trusting God if it was).
· A violent death for my wife in a drunk-driving car crash is hopefully not God’s plan for my bride or for me as her widower (though I wouldn’t quit trusting God if it was).
· But what most certainly is God’s plan for me is that in spite of the worst that this world can do to me (cancer, car crashes, abuse, etc.), an active God will engage me wherever I’m at.
· “God will work for [my] good” in whatever my earthly circumstances wind up being.
· He will heal my heart, he will help me forgive, he will redeem my circumstance, he will challenge my pride, he will wait patiently while I’m angry and grieving, he will constantly work for my good … especially as I yield my heart to his care.
God’s being in control doesn’t always mean that he controls my every circumstance. What it means is that he’ll help me control how I respond to my circumstances in the midst of this broken world.
Does that make sense?
A piece of advice: Don’t quote this verse to person in turmoil, trial, and grief. It’ll probably come across as a lecture that says …
· either “God is causing this pain to test you” (which God may occasionally be doing, but it’s rarely your job to presume!) …
· or it will come off as “weak and broken friend, you just don’t have enough faith to see what God is doing.”
Rarely, rarely, rarely quote this verse to a person in turmoil! Nevertheless, quote it (as arguably the 14th most important verse in scripture) to yourself …
“Life is hard, but God is good.”
“Lord, give me the patience to see you working … even in the midst of this world’s mess.”
In Christ’s Love,
a guy who, in life, has learned
a whole lot more from the messes
than the blessings (especially when I’m
patient enough to watch for God)
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