Last week at the Bible study I attend, we looked at Romans 8:28-29. I think that passage, especially the first verse, has become kind of cliche in Christian circles. Many situations leave people comforting one another with the fact that “all things work together for good.” But at Bible study, my friend Clara pointed out the connection between verses 28 and 29:
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
She said the conjunction at the beginning of verse 29, “for,” is key to understanding this passage, because it brings the two verses together. What God is really saying in these two verses that the “all things working together for good” means “being conformed to the image of Christ.” I had never seen that before in these verses.
It changes our whole view of suffering and trials, because I know that in my own life it’s sometimes difficult to concur with God that certain outcomes are good. I’m a sinner, so I don’t see things the way God sees them, and I don’t always think that what He puts in my life is good. Thankfully, God doesn’t expect me to always understand. What He does expect, though, is that I trust that whatever He puts in my life has been given to me that I might become more like Christ.
I’m currently struggling with trusting God about the future, most specifically about jobs. Like I said yesterday, I received an internship at The State newspaper for 12 weeks, but another job prospect opened up yesterday that I wasn’t expecting. I’m starting to get confused about what I should do, and how I should be use the skills God has given me, and how I should trust Him about the more mundane things of life like health insurance and credit cards.
I kind of fell apart today when I thought about it all, but a talk with my mom reassured me that the Lord really is capable of taking care of everything in my life, and my mind went back to those verses from Romans 8.
Even if I end up working at Starbucks for the rest of my life, God will take care of me, and He will not only sustain me at a constant level, but He will keep challenging me so that I look more and more like Christ every day.
And isn’t that all we want? To be one of the many brethren among whom Christ was the firstborn.
I’m going to keep praying that I would look at every circumstance with spiritual eyes, setting my heart on the eternal instead of the temporal. I encourage you to do the same.
There are tears that fall that seem to form in the depths of your soul, and by the time they emerge from your eyes they are big as bowling balls, and make it all the way down the collar of your shirt before they dissolve, carrying little pieces of your heart with them.
I find myself constantly let down because of the expectations I put on other people. As the hymnwriter says, “Human hearts and looks deceive me,” and he goes on to say, “Thou art not like them untrue.”
Sometimes it feels like I’ve been given a cross that is far too heavy for me to bear, but then I wonder if maybe that means I’m either carrying the wrong cross, or that I’m not really expected to carry it alone in the first place.
Jesus.
He is the Name above all names, and it is the sweetest Name I know. And right now I want to grab onto Him as tightly as I can and never let go.
only help my unbelief 