Work Together for Good?

What’s your first thought?

Ro 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.”

Waddaya mean, ‘all things’?

I clearly don’t often get what I

ask for

need

or think I need.

People still suffer:

lose loved ones

endure illness

… poverty,

etc.

What does it mean

“… all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28, ESV-CE)

when nothing seems to go right

for me

for those I love

for people enduring

war

displacement

homelessness

all the world’s ills?

Crisis

… can mean many things, among them

something has to change:

what I do

what I think

what I believe

If God doesn’t change my circumstances

and I believe God’s promises

then maybe what God needs to change is me;

If I learn that God is God

and I am not;

or realize that I don’t/can’t know all God’s work;

that God’s plan is always for my welfare and not for woe; (Isaiah I know my plans for you; plans for welfare, not for woe.)

then I have started to become that mature person in Christ

whom St Paul urges and prays for us all to become.

History

Israel’s and mine

disaster upon disaster→

growth in trust

awareness that the gift I didn’t ask for is better for me

than the one I did ask for (and that I had thought was denied).

God’s answer to us may be silent but it isn’t ‘No’.

It may be

Not yet OR

Not this but I have something better.

What I really need

when I pray is not

for God to give me what I ask for

but for me to appreciate the gift I actually got.