All Things Work Together
You ever have the feeling that things just aren’t going well in our world? You know, if you watch the news at all or if you log onto social media, it doesn’t take long for you to see that there’s a lot that feels like it’s going wrong at all times. I mean, yeah, sure we find pockets and moments of goodness, but for the most part, it just seems like there’s a lot of negativity. There’s a lot of things that just feel like they’re going wrong. And it’s easy when we find ourselves in these moments to think that things in the world are just bad. And it further makes us realize that maybe they’re always going to be bad. And sometimes if we’re honest, we start to lose hope for the future. But God’s word gives us encouragement and it restores hope when we read it.
There’s a passage in the Bible that shares this kind of hope with us. And if we can remember it and keep it in mind, even when things seem like they’re going bad, it can give us great hope. You see in Romans 8:28, there’s a promise of God that says we can know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them. Now, this promise shares that God works all things together ultimately for good. Now, what it doesn’t mean is that things taken by themselves are good. Some things, some events, some situations are decidedly just bad. But instead, what it means is that God is able to work all of that stuff together for the greater good, for the good that He has in purpose. He sees the big picture, he has a master plan for all of humanity and for all of this world. And that should bring us great hope even when everything just seems or feels bad.
You see, those who have a relationship with Jesus, can take confidence in knowing that no matter what our circumstances or our environments are, God is active and he’ll work all things out together for good, all according to His good and wise design. And with this knowledge, we can have and live with great hope in our real lives.
Now, I want to encourage you today to consider even when things are bad, what good could God bring from the situations that we find ourselves in? How could He use even the bad things of our world for His ultimate plan for good? I think if we think that way, it’ll bring us great hope.