All Things Work Together

Romans 8:28. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

And we know. It is not religious estimation. It is not educated hypothesis. It is more than conjecture or random formulas. There is knowledge rooted in a timeless truth. The knowledge that the present trial must not chain you, but change you. The problems we face cannot ignore the Divine pattern already established in the Eternal Word.

Preemptive Understanding

“Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” When you know that God is at work it doesn’t remove the pain, but it empowers the purpose revealed in the pain. Something is always better ahead for the child of God that keeps walking. For instance, if you are walking a familiar path then you know where the various destinations are located. There is no guessing. You are not confused by certain twists and turns in the path. And the doesn’t concern you if you know how far it will be from the start. God gives us this preemptive understanding in our faith. We can pray until we see things from a clearer vantage point of His perspective, from the peaks of His insights.

Wanting nothing. Think about how powerful this is; if you have a pantry stocked with every kind of food then you need only get up and go get it. Faith is connected to the Higher Knowledge of God that knows where everything that we need is placed. More than groceries, we are talking about grace. His favor wants us to be fruitful, wanting nothing. So we keep growing from trial to trial. We learn. We are liberated by what we learn (like finding the combination or key to the prison bars that confine you); we take that liberty and shine it as a light for others trapped in spiritual prisons.

Praiseworthy Undertaking

“Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations; that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” I Peter 1:6-7

“As by the action of fire gold is separated from all alloy and heterogeneous mixtures, and is proved to be gold by its enduring the action of the fire without losing any things of its nature, weight, color, or any other property, so genuine faith is proved by adversities.”[1] In other words, if we are going to be found praiseworthy in the end we will have to endure some pressure in the middle. Times will give us struggling seconds and agonizing hours.

You see, it’s not what goes in, the tested; but what comes out, the proven. Gold and fire work together to reveal purity.

Though now for a season. The brittle branches of a fruit tree in winter might solicit morbid feelings. You could stare at the unproductive tree and think to cut it down. You might even say, “it will never be the same.” Cold winds blow. Harsh skies discourage. Fruitless boughs creak. But it’s just a season. Change is coming. Time will tick away the cold breath of winter, and frost will give way to new fruit. Buds will show. Leaves will stretch. Freshness will awaken. Spring will come. And what was invisible in the frigid days of snow and ice will become a renewed vision of pregnant orchards and fruit laden branches.

The trial is not supposed to last, only what you gain from it. I like pistachios. And I like to eat them from the shell. I like the slower rhythm and patience it takes to gain one tasty nut from the shell. And after a few minutes I sweep the piles of shells from the desk to the trash. I take the pistachio and leave the shell. Take the treasure from the trial and leave the trial. Don’t stay in the cold confines of the cave. Gain your courage, pray for a while, share your isolated feelings with a Holy God; then leave the cave. Mine the gold; leave the mountain.

All things work together. Unifying circumstances. Broken bits mixed with whole parts. All things “fitly framed together.”[2]

The Expositor’s Greek Testament interprets this phrase as “God co-operates for good in all things.” Think about that. Even if something begrudgingly goes along with the will of God, the Lord still makes it work. Even detractors to your faith become co-stars in the journey of your life where God is the “author and the finisher.”[3]

There are two sides to this verse. The human and the Divine. We have a perspective of all things working together for good; and God has a perspective of everything fitting His purpose. So, the carnal man wants to know how things endured, places walked, experiences lived, faith acted out and failures realized, will achieve his own ambitions and secular drives. But the spiritual man relinquishes this inferior perspective for a better understanding of how everything endured (what we suffered), endeared (what we learned to love) and endeavored (what we attempted in the first place) fits the perfect will of God. Continue reading →