Day 327: Romans 7, 8 and 9

In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).

 

Did God one day create cancer and say, “This is great! People are going to love this once they figure out it’s for their own good!”? What about tsunamis? …child abuse? I don’t think so. While I’m sure that occasionally something that appears bad could be planned by God and ultimately be a good thing after all, the truth is bad things happen to good people, and there’s no sense blaming God for that.

But Romans 8:28 doesn’t say nothing bad will ever happen to us. It doesn’t even say every bad thing is a good thing that we are too limited to see. What it does say is that God works for our good in everything that happens. The question is, Will we let him?

When bad things happen to us, we can spend the rest of our lives being resentful, blaming anyone and everyone else for all our problems, or we can surrender those hurts to God and ask him to reveal himself to us and help us to grow through them. By submitting to God in those difficult times, we allow him the freedom to work into our lives the healing and growth we need, which brings about the abundant life (John 10:10). The end results are often determined by our response.

In what circumstances is God trying to work good into your life?