Romans 8:28-29New Living Translation (NLT)
28 And we 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. 29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
One of the really yummy parts of this verse is “God causes…” This means that you and I don’t have to push, shove, or force things to come together. God causes them to come together like pieces in a puzzle. If only we would believe this.
A lot of us have a tough time believing it because life is sometimes wrought with an incredible set of unique challenges. If you thought the Christian walk was going to be an easy glide, it’s far from it. They’re going to be some bumps in the road; some expected and some that will completely make our heads spin, because we didn’t see it coming in a million years.
God gave us a remedy for difficult times like those. Verse 29 tells us that He knew us in advance, even before we were conceived in our mother’s wombs. So there is nothing that you and I can face that God didn’t already plan for. There’s nothing that we can face that He didn’t already know about.
He’s God, and He doesn’t need any help from anyone to be who He is. God is all knowing, all powerful, and everywhere present. He’s magnificent beyond magnificence and brilliant beyond brilliance. 1John 1:5(NLT) says, “This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.” Our Heavenly Father is light. Wherever He is, there is love, light, liberty, and life! We must believe this because it’s His Word, and His Word is true. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please God. He demands that we trust Him, and trust Him big time, because He’s faithful to His Word, and He cannot fail!
So no matter how challenging life becomes, we can be confident that trouble doesn’t last always. If we’ll commit ourselves to learning to lean on the Lord Jesus Christ in faith, and if we’ll commit ourselves to deepening our relationship with God through Christ, we’ll find that life will be so much sweeter. Not only will things work together for our good, but we, ourselves, will come out of difficult times with a greater faith in God, and a more intimate love for Him as well.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.