Ok children, this is our passage for today!
Romans 8:28
“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 purpose.”

One of my esteemed professors went over this passage yesterday in class and I cant get it out of my mind. He looked at this passage in a whole new way for me. He broke the passage down into parts and I would like to try and do that here.

First of all, the passage says that “all things” are to work for the good. Sometimes it is hard for us to grasp that God is the owner of ALL THINGS. Professor said “What is included in all things?” Class replied, “ALL THINGS”. Why is this hard for us to grasp? Maybe we don’t get that God cares for the big and the small, the significant and the insignificant. You see, anything and everything that pertains to His children is significant to God. So, why don’t we pray, evangelize, and live our lives as if God owns everything??

Some may ask if suffering, natural disasters, and crises work for good. Some may construe this passage and say that suffering is good, and that is an incorrect interpretation. God does not want us to suffer, but He does want us to be holy and righteous and He will do anything in order for us to become more like Him. So in effect, suffering is not good, but the consequences that come from suffering are good. In our weakness, He is strong. So, when we suffer we are completely and utterly dependant upon Him, and so He gets all of the glory and not us, and that IS GOOD!!

I have a story to illustrate this point. There was a lady in a Bible study that I was in recently and she had lost her teenage daughter several years ago. Through this death, her daughter’s organs were given to patients who would have died without the transplant. This woman has very special relationships with all of her daughter’s organ recipients. She expressed in this Bible study that she had trouble with this verse because she couldn’t see how her suffering through the pain of her daughter’s death was for good. My Bible study facilitator explained to her that her suffering was not good and it was never intended to be good, but several lives were saved out of the situation from her suffering and that was GOOD!

So, I guess what I learned and I hope that you will also grasp from this passage is to realize that God can use our suffering for good. James tells us that we are to consider it joy when we suffer. He says that we are to do this because it brings about perseverance and helps us to gain character. So, we know that we are called to suffer, but don’t let it end there. Allow God to use the trials in our lives for GOOD! Once we realize that God ultimately will use ALL THINGS for GOOD, and then maybe our burdens and trials won’t seem so difficult.