When people are hurting from loss, many try to encourage them by saying, “I will be okay. After all, remember Romans 8:28… ‘God causes all things to work together for the good.'” (Pause) Those who go there frustrate me! Let me explain…
Sometimes… in this life… everything may NOT be okay. Pain may not leave. We may NOT understand. Why? God isn’t bound by days, weeks, months, decades, centuries, or millennia. Romans 8:28 doesn’t mean when you break your leg and meet a nurse in the hospital to become your wife that Romans 8:28 is to be lauded! Let’s think…
Romans 8:28 is not bound by THIS life! It refers to the eternal plan of God. At the end of all things… the end of time… after ALL things have been worked out in multiple lives… through the centuries… THEN God’s plan is proven good, perfect, good. Until then it is impossible to grasp all that God is involved in doing. “All things” refers to all people… all events… all places… all interacting TOGETHER!
So how ARE things understood as good (Okay) in this life? It happens by meditating on the truth of God from Scripture. Consider…
Colossians 3:2, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory”
When we struggle with the things that happen in this life… wondering why… confused… and depressed… we have quit thinking as God would have us to. We have forgotten we are to think NOT on this life, but on the one to come. Eternity. Heaven. When we will be with Jesus forever. THEN it will all make sense. THEN it will all be understood. THEN everything will be seen as good, perfect, and right.
Until then we are to have hope… faith… and trust God!
Personally, I don’t understand many things right now. But that’s okay! I have hope… an eternal hope. That one day, in God’s timing… it WILL all make sense because God will have worked all things together for His glory. And THAT is what is important!!