All Things Work Together for Good

Introduction:

Connection:

On what basis can someone be hopeful for the future? Is Christian hope just wishful thinking? Or does it have actual grounds and supports? When people saying: ‘it’s all gonna work out!’ How do they know? Are they sure of it? By what standard? Likewise, when a Christian says: ‘all things work together for good!’ How do they know? How can they be sure of it? The former is pure pagan sentimentality. But the latter is pure Christian confidence. Praise God that there are unshakeable grounds for this Divine hope. All things indeed work together for the good of the saints!

Need:

But it’s not enough to just proclaim this truth…. we must also support it. We must understand why we can be sure that all things work together for good! When a pagan proclaim his hope in some abstract destiny and principle of prosperity—we must be able to reject that wholesale, and ground our hope for the future in God alone.

Theme:

All Things Work Together for Good

Purpose:

To assure the saints of God’s purposeful sovereignty in our lives!

Turn to Text:

Romans 8:26-30 ESV

Recap:

Last time in our study of Romans 8 we saw how Paul described the groaning of creation for it’s final salvation, as well as the groaning of Christians for our final redemption! We saw how the scope of Christ’s Kingdom and Gospel is both personal and cosmic. And we saw how we must wait with patience for the final day of glory which far surpasses the weight of suffering in this age. And Now Paul is going to shift to speaking about God’s purposeful sovereignty in our lives, and how we can know that this is unshakably true!

Read the Text:

Romans 8:26-30 ESV

PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY - PRAY

We’re going to see that in our text Paul argues for tis purposeful sovereignty of God (in our second sermon point)—and that the first and third points are the grounds for his assertion. In other words—this passage is sandwiched like an Oreo! The top and bottom are both supporting the middle—the central idea. So firstly we come to focus upon:

(1P) Divine Pleading - vv. 26-27

26 Ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα συναντιλαμβάνεται ⸂τῇ ἀσθενείᾳ⸃ ἡμῶν·*

26 And likewise the Spirit is also helping us in our weakness:

Paul has already spoken about how we have received the Spirit of life, who is the Spirit of adoption in whom we cry, Abba, Father, and who is the same Spirit that is here said to be our Helper! And remember the context from last time… Paul just finished declaring how we are groaning inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies; and in it’s this very reality of our groaning in the weakness of our flesh, that the Holy Spirit comes as our divine help and strength in time of need! On our way to Glory, the Spirit is our Helper! And what does this exactly entail? Paul continues:

τὸ γὰρ τί προσευξώμεθα καθὸ δεῖ

For what to pray for as is necessary

οὐκ οἴδαμεν,

We do not know,

The things that are necessary to pray for, in their specifics, and in their particulars, can be so challenging to understand, that sometimes we just don’t know what to pray for! We struggle to know how to pray. Even though we have been given the Lord’s Prayer, which is a summary template for us, we can still be so lost as to it’s application to our lives and circumstances.

Have you ever felt this before? Prayer-less? Unable to pray? Not sure what to pray for? Well it’s precisely in this condition that the Spirit is our Helper! And He not only helps us in our prayerlessness, He also helps us by praying for us! The Spirit pleads on our behalf. Paul adds:

ἀλλʼ αὐτὸ τὸ πνεῦμα ὑπερεντυγχάνει ⸆ στεναγμοῖς ἀλαλήτοις·*

but the Spirit himself pleads with inexpressible groanings:

The word for pleading here is: ὑπερεντυγχάνει - BDAG: “to intercede in behalf of another, to plead Ro 8:26”.

This is remarkable. Paul doesn’t say that the Spirit simply prompts us with what to pray, although he surely does that! Paul also says that the Spirit himself prays and pleads for us and in us! How? Not with our inexpressible groanings, but with his very own groanings which are too deep for words. Just as the Spirit witnesses to God with our spirits, that we are children of God, so too does he plead before God with divine groanings on our behalf, even when we don’t know what to pray for ourselves! In our groaning along with creation—the Spirit likewise groans for our redemption. In our prayerlessness of not knowing what to pray for, the Spirit expresses divine pleading on our behalf to convey our needs to God! This is stunning! Our ignorance in prayer is met by the Spirit’s incredible pleading! Paul adds:

27 ὁ δὲ ἐραυνῶν τὰς καρδίας οἶδεν τί τὸ φρόνημα τοῦ πνεύματος*,

27 And the one who searches hearts has known what is the mindset of the Spirit,

Who searches minds and hearts? God! And especially God the Father.

Jeremiah 17:10 ESV

“I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

So God the Father who searches hearts, knows what the mind of the Spirit is, even as the Spirit is pleading for us and uttering inexpressible groanings on our behalf. God can make sense out of these divine groanings, as the Spirit pleads for us and in us! Even when we are groaning and don’t know what to pray for, the Spirit is groaning for us and knows what to plead for on our behalf! And we can know that God makes sense of the Spirit’s groanings because Paul says that God has truly and deeply known the mind of the Spirit, and…..

ὅτι κατὰ θεὸν ἐντυγχάνει ὑπὲρ ⸀ἁγίων*.

because according to God he intercedes on behalf of the saints.

And that’s how we can now that the Spirit helps us. Because (as it were), he ensures that our Father hears and knows our needs, even when we don’t know what we need! The Spirit’s pleadings are our petitions! And God knows his Spirit’s petitions! Therefore, God knows our petitions, even when we don’t. Isn’t that amazing? Praise God for the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life! Our Helper. And because of the Spirit’s pleading for us, the words of the Psalmist ring ever true:

Psalm 10:17 ESV

O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear

How can it get better than this? The children of God are the most blessed people in the entire world! Because we’re also going to see next week that Christ prays for us too!

HDK: Romans 8 teaches that believers have two intercessors: the Holy Spirit and Christ. [More on this next week—but in summary and comparison…] Christ’s intercession may be compared with that of a father, the head of the family, for all the family members. The Holy Spirit’s intercession reminds us rather of a mother kneeling at the bedside of her ailing child, and in her prayer presenting that child’s needs to the heavenly Father.

In Christ, and in the Spirit—we have two Intercessors! Divine Intercessors! And therefore we can rest assured that God knows what we need, and that the Spirit and Christ will plead for us just as we need! We see firstly this truth of:

(1P) Divine Pleading - vv. 26-27

This is the upper layer of the Oreo! This is the first reason why we know that all things work together for good… because God knows all things that are needed for the good! Hear this application from these verses:

(1A) The Spirit’s Pleading means that we are never Misunderstood by God.

Dear Christian, beloved child of God, this means that you are never without prayer. Not for a moment. And even when you don’t know how to pray, or what to pray for, the Spirit is pleading for you! And the Father understands your needs. The Spirit inexpressibly expresses your groanings, with his groanings, so your Father knows what stands behind them and before them. You are never without prayer, and you are never misunderstood by God!

Collinges: All our thoughts, words, and actions are of an abiding nature; thousands of them slip our memory, but none of them escape [God].

Psalm 38:9 ESV

O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you.

Whatever your situation is, whatever has left you speechless in prayer….. there is another who shares in your burdens, who utters divine groans with you and for you, and He brings these to the Father who knows what you need.

Maybe you’ve been praying for someone for ages, perhaps an unbelieving family member, and maybe you feel like you don’t know what else to say, maybe you feel like you’ve exhausted the subject, and your words fail you!

Or maybe you’ve been struggling with health challenges for years, and your just worn down, and hurting, and exhausted, or burn out, and you don’t know what else to pray for, and what else to ask God for, and you are left groaning!

Or maybe you’ve got this sin in your life that no one else knows about, a besetting sin that keeps weighing you down, and you can’t seem to shake it, and you don’t know how to beat it, and you don’t know how to pray in the fight!

Dear Christian, don’t fear that God doesn’t understand your situation, or can’t make sense out of your confused heart and mind. You are not alone. You have a Helper & Intercessor!

(1A) The Spirit’s Pleading means that we are never Misunderstood by God.

And so from here Paul continues and now hammers home his central point—the middle part of the Oreo. So secondly, we come to see Paul’s main assertion regarding:

(2P) Divine Providence - v. 28

28 Οἴδαμεν δὲ ὅτι τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν τὸν θεὸν

28 And we know that for the benefit of those who love God

What Paul is about to drive home, as his central point in this passage, is not a truth that is for all people. It’s not for unbelievers. It’s not for false-Christians. It’s not for the hypocrites or double minded. It’s not for those who are putting on a show. No, but rather it’s for true believers, true Christians, sincere disciples, who are focused followers of Jesus! It’s for those who are savingly united to Jesus in the Spirit of God!

Specifically, it’s for those who love God! Do you love God? Do you love him for who he is in and of himself, as Father, Son, and Spirit? Do you love the Triune God? Do you love the Father for sending Jesus to save you? Do you love the Son for his Gospel work? Do you love the Spirit for his applicatory work? Do you love the LORD your God, who has done great things for you? And who is worthy of your love even if he had never made and saved you? Then take heart!

What does Paul say is true for you who love God? He declares, gloriously, that:

πάντα συνεργεῖ ⸆ εἰς ⸇ ἀγαθόν,

[God] is working all things together for good,

Now there’s some difficult in translating this verse, because it’s not clear in the Greek as to who is working all things together. But I think that the context is clear that it’s God himself. The God of Providence! But what is providence? What does it really mean?

WSC: Q. 11. What are God’s works of providence? A. God’s works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.

And this God, our Father, is working all things together for the good, for the good of his children, and for their spiritual salvation! This is Divine Providence! This is our Father’s world! This is an amazing truth! This is exhaustive divine sovereignty:

Matthew 10:29 ESV

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.

Dear child of God, your Abba Father is in control of all things … the good and the bad, the highs and the lows, the blessings and the trials, and he is workings them all together as a master Artist, for the ultimate good of your salvation and his glory! All things work together for divine good!

Henry: Every providence tends to the spiritual good of those that love God; in breaking them off from sin, bringing them nearer to God, weaning them from the world, and fitting them for heaven.

Lamentations 3:37–38 ESV

Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?

Everything that you face in life comes as a divine appointment from the you Father who works all things according to the counsel of his benevolent will toward us. There are no random events. There is no luck or chance. God is making all things beautiful in their time, even the sins and sufferings that fall out in this world…

Even in your groaning and suffering, because the Spirit groans and pleads for you… you can rest assured that God knows what you need, and that in all of life, God is working all things for your good! Do you believe that? Do you see the heart of your Father standing behind even your greatest afflictions? They come from his benevolent heart, if you are a child of God in Jesus! All things in your life are working together…. for who? Paul adds:

τοῖς κατὰ πρόθεσιν κλητοῖς οὖσιν*.

for the benefit of those who are called according to his chosen plan.

Notice that those who love God, are those who are called by God. The called in these verses are a specific group of people. This is not a universal call or the general call and offer of salvation—this is a particular call and the effectual summons and to salvation! The called are the elect of God, those who are savingly loved by God, and thus, who are born of the Spirit, and who respond with love back to God! They who are called, are those who have been called according to God’s electing purposes, or as Paul says here, his chosen plan!

The word Paul uses here for purpose is: πρόθεσιν - BDAG: “that which is planned in advance, plan, purpose, resolve, or will”.

Those who are called are called by God’s chosen plan, purpose, resolve, and free will—not by our choosing, purpose, resolve, or free will. And therefore, Paul is going to move into the bottom layer of the Oreo to show that the other way in which we can know that God sovereignly works all things for our good, is because God is the one who saves us by his sovereign grace (more on this in our third point)! But for now glory in this:

(2P) Divine Providence - v. 28

And the most glorious thing about this divine providence is that it is FOR US, because God IS FOR US; and therefore we can know that he is workings all things together for our good! So before we move to the bottom layer of the Oreo, let’s pause for a moment and ask: how does this truth apply to us? Hear this point of application:

(2A) The LORD’s Providence means that we are never Misdirected by God.

God doesn’t make mistakes. God doesn’t change his mind. God doesn’t have plan B’s. God’s sovereign purpose is not dependent upon men or angels or natural laws. God’s plan is independent of our wills, and in fact, it ensured all all of God’s will is for our good!

WCF 5.VII. As the providence of God doth, in general, reach to all creatures, so, after a most special manner, it takes care of his Church, and disposes all things to the good thereof.

And hence we learn that God doesn’t merely turn things into good; rather, God is working in all things for our good! God doesn’t make mistakes and then have to correct them! He doesn’t misdirect us and then need to rescue us! No! He is working in the bad, for the good! As Joseph said so long ago in Genesis:

Genesis 50:20 ESV

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.

All of history is woven together for the good of the Church of Jesus Christ. All of history is purposed toward the salvation and blessing of the elect. All of history is directed for the protection and growth of the children of God! Even the tragedies of life are willed by the LORD for the salvation and edification of his children.

Flavel: Providence … is nothing else but the performance of God’s gracious purposes and promises to His people.

So receive your trials from God’s hand! Receive your temptations as God’s refinement. Receive your sickness as God’s medicine. Receive your suffering as God’s purification. Receive your persecution as God’s vindication. All things are working together for the good. Even the most wicked and awful events of world history, are part of the decree of God. Not a lot falls into the lap, but it’s every decision is from the LORD! As the Psalmist boldly proclaims:

Psalm 135:6 ESV

Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.

So brothers and sisters, trust God’s plan. Trust his purpose. Trust his providence. He isn’t caught off guard! He is making you more like Jesus. When you come to understand the exhaustive sovereignty of God over all things, and that this God is your Father, and that he is working all things for your good—then you will truly find rest for your souls, and will have a pillow under your head in all your trials! The goodness of God toward you undergirds all of his providence to you! Praise be to his name!

(2A) The LORD’s Providence means that we are never Misdirected by God.

All things work together for our good by God’s providence! How do we know? Because the Spirit is pleading for us! But more than this. As we hinted at earlier, Paul now adds the other reason why we can know that this is true! We can know that all things work together, because we are the elect of God. So thirdly we come to focus in on the blessed truth of:

(3P) Divine Predestination - vv. 29-30

29 ὅτι οὓς προέγνω,

29 Because those whom he has foreknown,

What does it mean for God to foreknow?

The word that Paul uses for foreknown is: προέγνω - BDAG: “to choose beforehand”; and TDNTA: “The verb means ‘to [intimately] know in advance,’ and [here] it refers to God’s foreknowledge as election of his people (Rom. 8:29; 11:2).”

This is crucial. This is a VERB! It’s something that God does. It’s not something that God has. It’s not a noun. It’s an action! Paul isn’t saying that God has foreknowledge, Paul is saying that God has foreknown us … which in biblical jargon means that he loves us! He sets his delight upon us. He chooses us!

He doesn’t look down the corridor of time and into hypothetical worlds in order to know beforehand who is going to choose him… No! Before the foundation of the world, and before you were even created, before you even had a will to choose God……God knew you. He set his affection upon you. He chose you in advance. He intimately loved you! He set you apart.

Gill: In this sense he knew them, he foreknew them from everlasting, affectionately loved them, and took infinite delight and pleasure in them; and this is the foundation of their predestination and election!

And because he has known us, on this basis, he has predestined us! God doesn’t elect sinners like we play inni minni miny mo….. God elects sinners because he chooses to love them, by the good pleasure of his will. And this electing grace is for sanctifying beauty! Paul says that those whom he has foreknown….

καὶ προώρισεν συμμόρφους τῆς εἰκόνος τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ*,

he also predestined to the conformity of the image of his Son,

Paul says this elsewhere in very similar terms, showing that he means electing love as the basis for personal predestination:

Ephesians 1:4–5 ESV

He chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will!

God doesn’t elect those who are going to love him, he elects those whom he has loved! God doesn’t predestine those whom he knows will choose him—God predestines those whom he has chosen! He has foreknown us before the ages!

But why has he done this? That we might become like his Son! That we might be confirmed more and more into the image of Jesus! That we might be savingly beautified! He has loved us, known us, and predestined us in order that we might not only bear the status as sons of God, but live as sons of God! And in this way, God has elected a brotherhood of siblings for Jesus! Paul says that God has done this:

εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸν πρωτότοκον ἐν πολλοῖς ἀδελφοῖς·*

with the purpose that he might be the firstborn among many brothers:

God loved Jesus so much that he wanted to give him a band of human brothers and sisters! God has loved us so much that he wanted to make Jesus our elder brother! And so it is. Jesus is our preeminent one. He is the firstborn among many brothers! The church is not only the family of God the Father, but also of God the Son. As it is prophecied in the Psalter about Jesus who declares:

Psalm 22:22 ESV

I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:

Election is not a cold and harsh concept—it is God’s revealed will of his unconditional love for his saints, of his gracious purpose for their salvation, and of his delightful goal to gather in a company of brothers and sisters to know Jesus, and to worship together for all eternity! Jesus Christ as God is the LORD who is worshipped, and as man is our brother who worships the Father with us!

But just before we could maybe twist these verses according to our free-will philosophy to try and justify our own liberty and actions as the reason why God choses and elects us…. Paul hammers home the point in the most emphatic way he knows in the Greek: by a string of Aorist verbs which declare that God has authored and has completed all of the work of salvation, from beginning to end!

Paul here gives us the golden chain of redemption, logically spelling out how God sovereign saves us by grace and grace alone! He has already told us that God has foreknown and loved us, and therefore has predestined us! And now he adds:

30 οὓς δὲ ⸀προώρισεν,

30 And those whom he predestined,

τούτους καὶ ·ἐκάλεσεν*

these also he called,

καὶ οὓς ἐκάλεσεν,

and those whom he called,

τούτους καὶ ἐδικαίωσεν·*

these also he justified,

οὓς δὲ ἐδικαίωσεν,

and those whom he justified,

τούτους καὶ ἐδόξασεν* (NA 28).

these also he glorified (My T).

God loves us before the ages begun; God predestines us to be saved from our sins; God effectually calls us to his Son; God pardons us and clothes us in his righteousness; and God resurrects us to reign in glory. God is the author of all of these actions. We are passive. We receive these blessings freely. We don’t do our fair share and then conditionally God does his. NO! God does everything! And the responses that we do have, and must have, are themselves gifts of his Spirit! This is Paul’s strongest way of declaring the doctrines of grace and the calvinistic mercy of God:

WCF 3.V. Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to his eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his will, hath chosen in Christ, unto everlasting glory, out of his mere free grace and love, without any foresight of faith or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in the creature, as conditions, or causes moving him thereunto; and all to the praise of his glorious grace.

And in all of this, the free grace and mercy of God is magnified and proclaimed!

Romans 9:14–16 ESV

What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.

Brothers and sisters, here we learn of:

(3P) Divine Predestination - vv. 29-30

This is the last reason Paul gives us to assure us that indeed God works all things for our good! We can know this not only because the Spirit is pleading for us in all things, but because the Father has unconditionally planned to save us from eternity in Jesus, and will see to it that all of the elect of God are brought home to heaven!

And who are the elect of God? Those who are believing in Jesus for salvation, repenting of sins, living as children of God, united to the church, and who are led by the Spirit. Come to Jesus for your own salvation and redemption and you can know that you have been predestined by the God of love. Don’t try and sort out your predestination to qualify you to come—no—come and so find that God has qualified you to come in predestination. None who come to himw ill be turned away, so come! But know that as you come, it is becuase you have been drawn by the Father! So dear saints, before we close this sermon, how does this last point of divine predestination apply to us? Hear this humbling truth:

(3A) The Saints’s Predestination means that we are never Magnified by God.

In other words, we don’t get the glory! We don’t get the credit! We don’t get the fame! We don’t get to boast! If someone asks you why you were chosen by God, and you point to anything in yourself, even your faith, then you have totally misunderstood your salvation, and are stealing glory from the praise of God’s grace! The only proper answer to why we were chosen by God is: according to his own good pleasure, and to the praise of his glorious grace!

Coles: To derive election from any root besides the good pleasure of God is to frustrate the principle end of man’s salvation—namely, ‘the glory of God’s grace’ (Eph. 1:6). This attribute, of all the rest, He will not have eclipsed nor entrenched upon. It is so divinely sacred as not to admit the least human touch, for which very cause, the Lord hath so contrived that blessed [gift] and plot of His glory, that all boasting is excluded; and ‘no flesh should glory in His presence’ (1 Cor. 1:29). But if anything in the creature be entitled to the cause of election, flesh will glory; and, instead of excluding man’s boasting, grace itself will be excluded (Rom. 11:6), which is far from a glorifying of it’.

And dear saints, Jesus himself was the strongest proponent of divine predestination. He even had many disciples turn away from him because they didn’t like it… because it offended their natural pride and ‘free-will’:

John 6:61–65 ESV

But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

Beloved, if we have come to understand the depravity of our hearts, and the wickedness of our sin, and our spiritual slavery in darkness by nature…. then we will understand that the only way that we can be saved is by unmerited grace, and unconditional love and divine election by God the Father, through Christ the Son, and in the Holy Spirit. The ultimate reason why people reject the doctrine of predestination, is because they haven’t been humbled in the depths of their sins, and they aren’t yet willing to give God all the glory for their salvation. It doesn’t matter what intellectual system you ascribe to to reject this doctrine. At core the old man will do anything it can to retain some of the credit. Dear Christian, who will you magnify for the cause of your election? God or yourself? Oh let us all humble ourselves before the LORD of glory, and rejoice with hearts that are stunned by the doctrines of grace and divine predestination and so cry out with Paul:

Romans 11:33–36 ESV

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

(3A) The Saints’s Predestination means that we are never Magnified by God.

But oh does it ever mean that God is magnified in the bestowal of the riches of his grace, to the vessels of his mercy, who he has prepared beforehand for glory, from among both the Jews and the Gentiles! Nothing humbles a man like predestination, and nothing glorifies God like predestination. Let God be God, and you will see that this truth stills the restless heart!

So let us come now to summarize our entire passage with the big idea for this morning. Paul has been seeking to show that all things work together for good—and he has given us two basic grounds of this truth to assure of us God’s gracious sovereignty in our lives! So note this beloved, that:

(C) Divine Pleading and Predestination Assure us that All Things Work Together for Good in God’s Providence!

I’d like to close this sermon with lyrics from William Cooper old hymn: God moves in a mysterious way! It preaches this text better than I ever could, and assures us of God’s gracious sovereignty in all of life:

God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform; he plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines, of never-failing skill; he fashions up his bright designs, and works his sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints fresh courage take, the clouds that you much dread, are big with mercy and will break in blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace; behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour; the bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err, and scan his work in vain; God is his own interpreter, and he will make it plain.

I hope you can see now that this isn’t wishful thinking! Because of God’s gracious sovereignty in our lives, we can know for certain that all things work together for good.

Amen, let’s pray!