God Can Use My Messy Life for Good

In review of Romans 8:28 it says, “We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God.”

Bottom Line:

When you love God, you know that he causes everything that happens to work for your good, it’s part of his plan.

What this means to me:

If I love God, I will know that He causes everything to work together for my good, it is part of his purpose for me and fits into his plan.

One of God’s great promises in revealed in Romans 8:28: “We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God” (NLT). While being one of the most well-known verses, it can also be one of the most misunderstood. This verse speaks to me of recovery and growth.

First it says, “We know.” In other words, I’m not guessing, hoping, wishing, or desiring. I know for certain. I can be confident. I can even stake my life on it.

What do I know? “We know God causes ...” This means my life is not an accident. There’s no such thing as random chance. There’s no such thing as bad luck. My life is not a result of fate. There is a grand design behind everything.

“We know that God causes everything ...” If we just stopped there, that would make God the author of evil, and God is not the author of evil. Nothing that is evil in the world was caused by God. Rather, He’s saying, “We know that God causes all things to work together for the good ...” This verse does not say all things are good. They’re not! There’s a lot of evil in the world.

What I’m learning is that no matter what, God can bring good out of bad. For example, take the Crucifixion. The death of Jesus was bad. They tortured him, they spit on him, they beat him, and then they crucified him. God brought good from that in the form of salvation to the world! God specializes in bringing good out of bad.

Interestingly enough, his promise is not for everybody. “We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God.” This promise is only for those who are willing to give God the pieces of a broken life and say, “God, I love you, and I believe you can use the mess of my life for something good. Please take the pieces of my life and put them back together.”

I know that all things that have happened in my life, whether I thought them to be bad or good were to build me up and then make me useful for his purposes. Given this, I want myself to be open to God use me and my life to make a difference in the lives of others around me.