Everything? Even This?

Everything? Even This?

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.

Romans 8:28

My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees.

Psalm 119:71

Turn on the television and you will hear some TV preachers tell you that if you put your faith in God, he will make you healthy and even wealthy.

But God doesn’t promise that. He doesn’t say that if you follow him you will never have to suffer. What he does promise is that when you suffer, it won’t be meaningless. He promises that your suffering will not be wasted—that he’ll take the hard, hurtful experiences and realities in your life and use them for good purposes in your life and the lives of others.

But this is hard to believe when difficult things happen. We wonder, What possible good could come out of this? When we struggle to make sense of the truth that God can use bad things for good purposes, considering what happened at the Cross helps us. The Cross is the ultimate example of God’s ability to work all things together for good. He even brought good from the most wicked thing darkness ever did—putting innocent Jesus to death. If God can use the cruel death and enormous suffering of his innocent Son on the cross to bring about the greatest good of all time, then we can be confident that he can do something good in and through the suffering in our lives too.

Either everything works for good or nothing makes sense. It is the “everything” in Romans 8:28 that makes this hard to accept but also fills us with hope. Everything means there is not one thing that falls outside of this promise—not suicide, not murder, not permanent injury, not divorce. God is not saying these things are good. But he does promise that if you love him, he will use even the worst thing you can imagine for your ultimate good. He will use the most bitter experience in your life to bless you.

DISCUSSION STARTERS

What are some good things that came from Jesus’ dying on the cross?

What is the difference between saying that everything is good and everything works together for good?

How can believing that God can bring good out of everything change how we respond to suffering?