We Know

In this chapter, Ian Hamilton breaks down the importance of truly understanding this truth from God: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.  From Roman 8:28

Paul starts this verse off with this imperative. WE KNOW.  Can we believers truly say this?  How can Paul, the midst of life’s uncertainties, say this with such clarity and forthrightness?   WE KNOW.

Well, who is the we… those who love God AND are called according to his purpose.  It’s a two parter eh?   The love and the calling. First There we are, the people of God, the people that love God.  Not a person all on their own, but a person united with others so we become a WE.   We have a love for God that holds us together but we also have a calling.  A calling to do God’s purposes.  With that love comes a knowledge that God will work all things in our life together for good.

Do you see how they fit together?

The love we have for God calling us to a unity.  

God’s love evidenced in our lives.  He called us to be his own.  He predestined us to love him and to be mindful of him and he calls us his own.  In the calling he works everything that happens in our lives for good. 

It doesn’t say that he works everything out for OUR good, but that he works everything out FOR good. Remember how we are a WE?  So the struggles that we go through… a job to find, a death of a child, temptations, devastation, death, and such like.  We, including the individual me and I, but we, who are loved by God, who love God and are called according to his purposes.  He works it all for the good. 

Isn’t that just the greatest comfort?

Paul’s assurance that we KNOW this.  That we know God’s calls us according to his purposes and that he works out everything single thing that happens in our lives FOR GOOD.  He does.  It’s just a regular fact in our lives as believers.  So confident he is that we know this thing.

The miscarriages I’ve had helped me reach out to a gal who went through a miscarriage, losses of animals held dear to my heart help me understand pet loss in others, raising a child (something not always so easy) helps me reach out to other moms.  It doesn’t always directly benefit me, but it does benefit the kingdom of God.  And THAT, that is a very good thing.

What hard things have happened in YOUR life that have turned out for good?