And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God. To those who are called according to his promise.  Romans 8.28

            That statement above is a pretty bold one, isn’t it?  It surely taxes the imagination.  Pick any headline, from any newspaper, on any morning and try to figure out how the particular event described fits into God’s plan.  It is not an easy task.  To accept that every good and perfect gift is from above (James 1.17) is not so hard.  To believe that God will provide a deliverance of some sort from our trials (I Corinthians 10.13) is easy enough to wrap your mind around.  But that one above – to really believe it – not the way we tacitly believe in a platitude, or a bumper sticker – but to believe in the down to earth truth that whatever happens He will make it a blessing is not so easy.

            Our difficulty in taking God at his word here lies not in the fact that the world is filled with evil and violence, but lies, I believe, in that we don’t listen carefully enough to what God says.  This verse does not say that God causes all things for that would be a violation of free will.  This verse does not say that all things are good for the Bible certainly, and frequently values some things as bad.  This verse does not make its promise indiscriminately for that would eliminate the line between the saved and the lost.  This verse does not promise prosperity and ease for the Bible never makes that promise.

            The promise of this verse is given to a particular group of people – the saved: “those who are called according to his promise.”  This verse admits that “things” happen, and promises that whatever these “things” might be, good or bad, God is greater.  God arranges the “things” in relationship to each other so that they ultimately produce something good and lasting in our lives.  The things themselves aren’t good by themselves perhaps, but, as God adds experience to experience the sum of the equation is goodness.  “Goodness” is being saved, for the larger context of this verse is about salvation.  I knew a preacher once who used to pray “whatever it takes to get me to heaven, Father, give it to me.”  This is the promise of the passage – are we brave enough to pray the same prayer?

            Paul, who makes this statement, makes it from both inspiration and experience.  In I Timothy 1.12ff Paul describes how God used his own sinful past to save sinners – since Paul, himself is “the worst” of sinners, and since he “found mercy” he is “an example” for all who would “believe in Jesus for eternal life”.

            This means all the bad and good we have done, and all the bad and good that has been done to us – all of it, everything – serves as the raw material from which God fashions a triumphant life – and no one can stop Him from doing just that as we yield those “things” to Him.

            Everything works together for good – if we love God and have responded to his call.

            Everything.

            He makes it so.