Romans 8:28– I’ve heard this verse a million times. Shout out to my Dad… it’s his favorite. It’s been used to encourage me countless times. It’s become a truth I declare over my life on a regular basis. “He works all things for good.” I replay it in my mind in the midst of trials and obstacles. When things don’t seem to be working out. It really is a good one to hold in your back pocket at all times.
When I would look at the verse in context, it has never really fit with Romans 8 in my mind. There has always been a small disconnect. It seemed to be a random awesome thought plugged into a completely different awesome thought. It was as if Paul, so excited about all that he was writing, took a little rabbit trail off into a different part of outer Holy space.
Good word, Paul, but you kinda lost me there.
But tonight as I read through this wonderful part of Scripture, it all came together and blew my freakin’ mind.
So… to explain a little, we need to rewind a bit to Romans 7:22-23
“For I delight in the law of God in my inner being but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.”
It really is funny how you can read something a hundred times and never see a connection. Then one day, it simply clicks into place as if it’s the most obvious thing you’ve come across this year. But, you see, it clicked because I’m knee-deep in this war between my flesh and my spirit that Paul is talking about. Frankly, it’s got to be the most frustrating thing I’ve ever experienced. Especially when I feel like I’m losing.
“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” (7:15)
But here’s where the “go-to verse,” Romans 8:28, comes in. God is using this season to teach me a very important truth.
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.”
–even when my flesh rises up.
–even when I find myself knee deep in sin.
God is using this struggle with my fleshly desires to draw me closer to Himself. Something that, according to my flesh, should be chalk full of shame. Something that should be leading me to question all that God has done in my life over the past five years. Something that should be breaking me, leaving me flat on my face weeping.
But He really does work all things for good. Although this battle has been grueling– He is teaching me. Making me stronger, wiser, more like Christ. He’s shattering my world.H e has spoken over me that I am on the cusps of a complete transformation of the way I think– the way I live.
And I’m in this place, on the precipice of true, radical life change because my flesh rose up and tried to consume me, but He said “It is good.”
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