How can you comfort someone who’s lost a loved one? How can you believe in a God who “lets bad things happen to good people?” How can God take away your job? How can God allow this trial? How can God pile on these burdens? How can you have joy in your very situation? These are questions people ask everyday. Many of those who don't know the hope that with Jesus, we win.
“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
All means all. This guarantees that for those who God calls, those who love Jesus, He uses ALL things. Every single thing that has happened to you has a guaranteed promise to work out for your good. I think this takes one very important thing: the posture of your heart. Your answer to those questions above after reading Romans 8:28 says a lot about how big or small your view is on God. God is omnipotent and omnipresent. Gods plans and ways go outside our thinking. They go without limits. The plans He has for us go beyond our understanding.
When your heart is postured right, I believe you can read Romans 8:28, with your world crashing down, and believe it. Believe when it says “All things.” That is how you will get through this life, that is our guarantee. That is The Promise.
God never promised us easy. Our lives aren’t unaffected by this world, the sin or the brokenness that entangles us. It isn’t that believers are exempt from a life of hardships. No, not at all, it is simply the fact that we have a different way of processing them. Like a darkroom developing film, God has a way of taking the negatives and turning them into positives. Helping us see the bigger picture.
Although you may be thinking of the hardest thing you or someone you love has walked through, we need this as a stronghold for everything, not just the "big" things. From small annoying inconveniences like hooking your jacket loop on the door handle as you rush out of the house. The spilled coffee on your car seat, delaying you all the more. Forgetting your wallet so you have to turn around. The pipe that burst, canceling all foreseeable plans. As cliche as it is, the saying "God wrecks your plans before your plans wreck you" really stuck with me since the time I first heard it. I think about how much bigger Gods plans are and if He loves me and if all things really work out for my good, then there are a million ways God protects me without evening knowing it. All the "delays" he was just protecting. I see it as God loves me this much that I had to cancel plans that I was so *beyond excited for. It's happened to me and instead of being frustrated, I have a choice to stay upset or trust it's on purpose for a purpose. Our lives aren't about us either and I can't help but think about the what if's. What if the pipe burst and the people who came to help needed someone to fill them with joy. What if I hit every light because I would've got hit by a drunk driver had I made them all. What if all the things that go "wrong" lead me to places and people who just need to hear about Jesus that day. There is no such things as "big" or "little" when it comes to problems or issues in life. God uses them all equally I believe. I also believe there is a greater purpose to them all.
I think about the "big" things too. The ones that leave us speechless. Heartbroken. The ones that take our breath away. I think of loss. Loss of friends or family. The calls we get that wreck our worlds forever. The call of cancer, a car accident, of overdose, of death, the call that makes you step outside of your very self and float. Floating above the news while growing deaf to the person on the other line. The devastation of these things hurt. I remember key moments in my life where loss altered the future, the earthly future at least. I'll never forget the day I said goodbye to my uncle who battled cancer. I'll never forget the call I got from my parents that my brother was in a horrible accident. Mangled and burned, I remember looking at him in the hospital and saying out loud "God you have to show me why, because I don't understand this. I know there is purpose to it, but you have to show me." And He did. There has been a lot of people my family has lost, just as many others have too. Calls that take your breath away and shock your very being. But those moments, I can look back and see what God did because I knew there was purpose to them. Don't hear "tone-deaf" when I say this. We are called to mourn. In one hand there is a time for everything and in the other, Romans 8:28 has altered my life forever.
It takes believing that He truly uses ALL things for good. This is our ironclad, this is our Rock, and this is our unfailing promise. Every trial, every burden, every heartache, every defeat, every loss, and every situation, will be made for good.
I think to myself often, if Heaven is bliss, what would earth be without trials. If one day I’m going to be free from the sorrow of this world forever, then what’s life without trials? If we didn’t have anything hard, how would we know easy? If we didn’t have any hurt, how would we know healing? If we didn’t have sorrow, how would we know joy? That’s the thing, we wouldn’t. And we wouldn't need God. We wouldn’t need the Bible and we wouldn’t need help. My struggles don’t just show my weakness but how much I need Jesus. It says in 2 Corinthians 12:9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power my is made perfect in weakness." Most people stop reading there but Paul continues on in verse 9 and says " Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me." I'm fully aware that in my weakness, I need Jesus all the more. I’m not supposed to have the strength to get through life and I don’t want to. I want to depend on God, My Rock, to get me through this life. To give me joy in the midst of trial. To give light to the darkness. To mold me by every single thing he has in place for my life, good or bad. And like Paul "boast gladly" so that I may rest in Christ. I want him to use ALL things because He has ordained all my days. In the confusing, painful moments, I must cling to the promises of God. And in the joys and celebration, thank him for the journey to get there… because I wouldn’t know it without the trials.
Let me tell it to you this way, I recently watched the animated movie the Grinch. At the very end of the movie, the grinch steals Christmas. Like a thief in the night, he killed, stole, and destroyed Christmas for the whos of Whoville. But as the grinch carried the gifts and decorations with great joy to the top of his mountain, he looked down at the town and saw something unusual. He heard something he couldn't understand. They were... singing. They had joy. At this, he was confused. As I watched the movie I thought, how cool would it be if the enemy looked at my life after trying to steal my joy, just to look down at me dancing and singing instead. The best part about being Children of God? No one can take the Holy Spirit away from you. The power of the Spirit is able to do anything because of the God we serve. No one can steal the Holy Spirit. Nothing can kill the Spirit of the Lord that lives inside of His children. The enemy may kill but death gives way to life as a believer. That is why the enemy can never win, for as long as earth exists, he can never ever win. He is the father of destruction and lies. He kills what he cannot silence. The enemy can twist words, lie, steal, and beat us down. But with the power of the Holy Spirit, we can live with joy because of the very words written in Romans 8:28. That in all things, with great joy, we know that God has already worked every single thing out.
This promise is one so broad that nothing in life is excluded from it. It has an infallible application and nothing can take away from the utterly honest truth about it. This promise is undeniable. You can’t take away the words written in Romas 8:28 and twist it. It says ALL things for a reason, and God wants you to believe that truth. That’s the promise He made and He keeps His promises. I believe this verse can change your entire attitude in your very situation. It can alter your crushed Spirit. This knowledge changes our attitudes about every single thing that has happened— at least it should.
As we get older it seems as though life gets harder. More responsibilities. More people. More relationships. More problems. More evil in this world. During these hard times we might wonder if things will ever get better. Have you ever had days, weeks or months where you say “I can’t catch a break can I?” Sometimes it feels like you’re drowning in sorrow, trials, and bills that seem to never end. But what if you knew it would all turn out well? What if you saw your hardships as good? What if you started thanking God and asking him to open your eyes to the good of the situation. The silver lining. The light in the darkness. Because if you believe God, if you believe He is good, and if you believe in the word "all” then you will carry the undeniable joy in the midst of trial. Nothing is a surprise to God. He’s ordained all of our days. He has seen it all. He has made all things, all circumstances big or small, work out for good.
Believe this promise from God. Not just a little, but with your whole heart. Because with this promise at the center of your heart, you can, and you will get through all that life hands you. We serve a sovereign God, a merciful God, and a God who loves you more than you can ever comprehend. He is also a just God and will come to our aid in the midst of darkness in this world. Let me say it again, He is a God who will not let his faithful one see decay. He’s ordained every single one of your days and will use all things for your good because you love him.
In every single circumstance, I pray you may have an undeniable joy because you believe that God is just that good. He is making all things new. He is making all things right. And He is working all things out for your good. Trust in that one promise and you’ll see God in more ways than you ever knew possible. I dare you to look at what seems like the impossible in your life, the thing that you’ve lost all hope for or the thing that has completely crushed you, and believe God will use it for good. And let me let you in on another little secret… He already has it worked out for your good. So believe it.
xx LA
