I remember a story told by Nicky Gumbel (creator of the Alpha series) about a young girl whose father was a famous pianist.
She was down in the lobby of a building, pounding away on the piano and making a pretty awful noise. She was off-key. She had the wrong notes. And her attempts sounded more like random noise than like music.
But then her father, listening from the balcony, came down and sat beside her. As she played the piano, he joined in. He filled in the gaps and he played the notes that complemented hers.
He was able to take this raucous noise and turn it into beautiful music by playing alongside his daughter.
And what God does in our lives is something like that. He takes all of our mistakes and all of the places where we suffer and turns them into something beautiful. This doesn’t mean that all things are good, but that God can take even the bad stuff and make something good out of it.
Romans 8:28 says that "in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
This means that God can take all the messes in our lives, all the places where we seem to be off-key or just making a raucous noise, all the random mess that we may see around us, and turn it into something good.
Nicky Gumbel, in The Bible in One Year, says this about Romans 8:28:
In every detail of your life, God is at work. ‘All things’ includes even our mistakes. God will take even your errors and work them out for your good.
He reigns. He is sovereign. In everything he works for the good of those who love him.
Supremely, the cross demonstrates that just as God took the very worst event in history and turned it into the very best; he can take the worst things in your life and use them for good.
Does God really work all things together for our good?
We might be tempted to doubt this, especially in times of suffering. Is this really for my benefit? Is this really good?
We might be tempted to doubt this when we see our secular friends seeming to excel in life. Why does my life seem to be so much harder than hers?
But I think that we need to take the long view when considering this passage of Scripture.
Earlier in Romans 8, we are told that there is "now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:1-2).
We are not promised an easy life.
We are promised that death and decay are not the end of the story.
We are promised that, if we seek God above all else and submit ours wills to His own, that we can enjoy eternal fellowship with Him.
That all things will be made new (Revelation 21:5).
That we are not merely rushing around like mere phantoms (Psalm 39:6).
That we are being shaped into Heavenly creatures.
It is this idea of shaping that can help us to understand the idea that God works all things together for our good. Even the mistakes in life, even the bits that seem senseless and painful can be used to create something beautiful.
Bakers might understand this best.
When we are baking a cake, or a loaf of bread, or cookies.... we take raw ingredients that we would not want to eat by themselves and turn them into something beautiful and delicious.
You need the right ingredients and the right conditions.
It is not the case, notice, that God works all things for everyone's good. Paul says that God works all things for good for those who have been called to his purpose.
Those who seek Christ and seek to share His love. Those who live according to God's will and not according to their own selfish desires (Romans 8:5).
The conditions for becoming a loaf of bread, or a cake, instead of a rock hard ball of dough, are humility, love, and selflessness (Luke 6:32-36, 43-45; Luke 10:27).
Given the right conditions, and the guiding of the sovereign King above all kings, all things in our lives can work to our good.
♥ Lord, how can I ever thank you enough for your amazing love? Thank you that in all things you are working together for the good in my life, and absolutely nothing can separate me from your love. ♥