ALL THINGS DON'T ALWAYS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD

Lots of verses in the Bible get misquoted, underquoted, overquoted or quoted without a much needed context. The father of lies was the first to do so and he has not let up. He added to God's Word when hissing temptation to Eve and again in the wilderness with our wonderful Jesus. At the nursing home there was faithful attender to our services each Sunday who without fail reminded us about John 3:17 whenever we quoted John 3:16...and she had a point. Her voice altered by MS, she would say, "We must remember that God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world." I rarely quote 3:16 without 3:17 now.

Another verse that gets kind of tucked away in a corner when it should be spoken along with verses like, "If you shall ask anything in My name, I will do it," and "If we shall ask anything according to His will, He hears us." Great verses. True verses. But the one that keeps popping up in my little head due to a memory course we did in the Wednesday night services at our church years ago is this: And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. I John 3:22. Hmmmm. Ephesians 5:10 (NIV) exhorts us to find out what pleases the Lord." That indicates knowing the precious Word. Anyway, I never hear this verse quoted or expounded upon: it is an "unquoted" verse.

So, when I hear people say with a equal mix of spirituality and casualness, "Well, all things work together for good," it bothers me and I have gone to speaking my mind on it. Nicely, of course. First of all, the verse says that "we know" that all things work together for good; but that not being my main point, I'll go on. God tells us in this wonderful verse that we know that all things work together for good to "those who love Him."

To be brief, this promise is for those who love God. While I believe that there is no exact way to measure a person's love for God, we do have this guideline: love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength. I honestly do not think this verse is written for casual lovers and that is therefore, wrong and misleading to tell a poor soul who is barely walking with the Lord that all things are going to work out for good for them in a particular trial.

God responds incredibly intimately and powerfully in the life of a person whose love is intense towards Him. Any diluting or contemporizing of the intent of Romans 8:28 is faulty and just plain wrong.

Now, one last thing: even though "we know that all things work together for good to those who love God," it may not always seem like it. But count on it...maybe not now, maybe not as we would do it or as we see it, and maybe we will never know the facts until the other side...but we can be sure that everything having to do with His child will work together for good if we love Him!