Do All Things Really Work Together for Good? Part 4 of 5

The Bible says that all the promises of God find their Yes in him (2 Corinthians 1:20). The "him" is Christ. All the promised hope and forgiveness and blessing and love and joy in the Bible comes to life, finds its fulfillment, in Jesus.

The promise we've been talking about is one of the Bible's best known and loved - Romans 8:28. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

I've tried to summarize who the promise is for, where its power comes from, and what it really means. This time let's talk about The Scope of the Promise: What parts of my life does this cover? 

It seems obvious, reasonable somehow, that “all things work together for good,” when the “all things” are good things. When we’re trying to live by God’s word, when we’re telling others about Jesus, when we’re trying to raise our families the right way—it makes sense that God will work those things together for good. But what about everything else?

• What about the hard things that come into our lives: serious illness, for example? “All things work together for good…”

• But what about the sins of others that crash through our lives like a wrecking ball? Sometimes these things happen when we're young, leaving a lifetime of brokenness. “All things work together for good…”

• Or what about financial problems. Suppose the economy doesn’t improve and we lose our house or our retirement savings are wiped out? “All things work together for good…”

• What about unspeakably terrible tragedy - like the death of a child? “All things work together for good…”

• But we have an enemy. Satan comes to "steal, kill, and destroy..." What about demonic oppression? “All things work together for good…”

• Well, what about our own messes, the bad choices we’ve made, the times we’ve sinned, backslidden, said or done things we can’t take back? “All things work together for good…”

Again, this promise certainly doesn’t mean all things are good. But it does mean that, for the Christian, there is nothing outside our Heavenly Father’s control. Not sin or Satan, not disease or death, not bad or good choices, not the rise or fall of nations, not cruelty or kindness, not governments or global economies or terrorist plots. “All things” are under His control!

And He is absolutely committed to working all things - all things! -  together for our eternal good, to the shaping and forming of the image of Jesus within us.

For next time: The Certainty of the Promise: How sure can I be?