But Does It Really, Though?

Recently, a friend came back from a women’s retreat leaning into this phrase, “everything is always working for my good”. More than a phrase, it is meant to be a way of looking at life and trusting God (or the universe if you don’t believe in God) to take care of you.

Immediately, I thought of Romans 8:28 [NKJV] And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to [His] purpose.

Does it, though? Do all things really work to the good of believers?

Can we trust God and this scripture when things look really bad? When the miracle baby of two believing parents, is conceived naturally after 2 failed IVF efforts, but is now in the NICU fighting for her life with multiple birth defects and an infection on top of that? When the former foster child who is now a believer, but who received abuse and neglect at the hands of natural and foster families alike is so physically broken they cannot hold down “regular” job and sometimes has to sleep in his car? When the marriage of a believer crashes and burns due to no fault of their own?  When the cancer diagnosis comes so late that it leaves no hope, and God does not step in to heal? When a believer’s home is broken into while he is at church?

There are three helpful things to consider when trying to unravel this seeming dichotomy.

1.        The Greek word here is agathos, which can mean benefit, good, well. Doesn’t “all things work together for the benefit of those who love God” hit a bit differently.

2.        Some manuscripts translate that verse either God works all things together for good, or God works in all things for the good. And that, I believe, is a much better indication of the intent of this verse. “God works in all things for the good” allows us to view this scripture from the vantage point of the intent being that God will use whatever unfair, painful or unfathomable trouble comes our way to our ultimate good.

3.        And 2 Peter 3:9 [NIV] outlines exactly what that “good” is that God is working all things toward, when it tells us, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

God works in all things to bring about the good of repentance; the good of eternity in His Kingdom. He is not necessarily working it out to the good of your health right now, or to the good of your financial situation. The health and wealth gospel gets that entirely wrong.

God in not necessarily doing these things, or even approving them, as He did with Job, but He is definitely using them. He uses these situations when there is no one at fault, when there is someone who is doing evil against His child, and when we must honestly say that we did it ourselves. Every reason that we suffer and every situation that brings us pain, God will use to our ultimate good – though it might kill us in this life, or we might just feel like it will.

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

If we zoom out a bit by reading the verses coming before and after Romans 8:28, we get a better, more complete picture of the intent of this verse.

Romans 8:26-30 [NIV] 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God. 28 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. 29 For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.

We don’t always know what to say or how to pray for a situation – especially one that seem so out of synch with our benefit/good. But the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, because it is perfectly aligned with God’s will. We are predestined for glorification. The Spirit ensures that our prayers are aligned with that, moving us toward alignment with the will of God, so that we are always working toward the purpose of our calling and of the justification we have by the blood of and intercession from Jesus, which is that state of glory in His Kingdom.

We would not always know how to move in that direction during a time of stress, worry, pain, and trial. But the Holy Spirit, God’s own essence living within us, definitely does. And it does God’s work in us to take every circumstance and align it with our ultimate benefit or good.

We can be comforted, sweet sisters, by the fact that nothing that occurs to us occurs in a vacuum, unseen, unknown, unattended to by God. No, we can rest assured that whatever it is and however it came to be, God will use it to our ultimate good, which is toward our being in His Kingdom for all eternity.

I welcome your comments and questions. You can write me in the comments section or any time at Nancy@DynamicChristianMinistries.org.