TRANSFORMED BY TROUBLE (II)

TRANSFORMED BY TROUBLE

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” II Corinthians 4:17

(II Part)

Romans 8:28-29

This is one of the most misquoted and misunderstood passages in the Bible. It does not say, “God causes everything to work out the way I want it to. Obviously that’s not true. It also doesn’t say, “God causes everything to work out to have a happy ending on earth.”That is not true either. There are many unhappy endings on earth.

We live in a fallen world. Only in heaven is everything done perfectly the way God intends. That is why we are told to pray, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” says Matthew 6:10. To fully understand Romans 8:28-29 you must consider it phrase by phrase.

“We KNOW”: Our hope in difficult times is not based on positive thinking, wishful thinking, or natural optimism. It is a certainty based on the truths that God is in complete control of our universe and that he loves us.

“That God causes”: There’s a Grand Designer behind everything. Your life is not a result of random chance, fate or luck. There is a master plan. History is His story. God is pulling the strings. We make mistakes, but God never does. God cannot make a mistake because he is God.

“Everything” : God’s plan for your life involves all that happens to you—including your mistakes, your sins, and your hurts. It includes illness, debt, disasters, divorce, and death of loved ones. God can bring good out of the worst evil. He did a Calvary

“To work together” : Not separately or independently. The events in your life work together in God’s plan. They are not isolated acts, but interdependent parts of the process to make your like Christ. To bake a cake you must use flour, salt, raw .(Continue)