All Things Work Together for Good If I Love God
“And we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who have been called according to his purpose” Romans 8:28.
This familiar and beloved passage comes out of Romans 8. Click here to read the whole chapter for context. As is the case with so many biblical promises, this one is predicated on a condition. And that condition is that we love God. But then the question becomes how do we know if we love God?
The Meaning of All Things Work Together for Good
Essentially, it’s pretty simple. If we love Jesus, we’ll obey Him. Those aren’t my words. That’s what He said in John 14:21: “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me”. We’ll obey Him even when we don’t feel like it and no one else is doing it and we don’t have much to show for it.
When we do this, those things that make it so difficult to obey become a blessing rather than a curse. And an instrument for our growth and maturity. God uses what the devil meant for our harm for our good if we love and obey Him.
Negative emotions, temptation and all other manner of evil is really not evil at all, but a great blessing if we don’t yield to them.
Negative emotions can cause us to shirk our responsibilities and say and do things we regret. In essence they can bring about greater weakness, moral decay and destruction in our lives.
But if we don’t yield to them and do what’s right despite how we feel those same emotions work for our good. They make us stronger, more mature and prepare us for the abundant life Jesus promised (John 10:10).
It’s Not What We Experience but How We Respond
Temptation yielded to makes us weaker, increases moral decay and brings destruction and misery in its wake. But temptation resisted makes us stronger and wiser.
The point is, it’s not what we experience but how we respond to that experience that determines how it affects us. How we respond determines whether it will be a blessing or bane, an instrument for good or for evil in our lives.
This is why it’s our love for God that causes seemingly negative or “bad” things to work for our good. When we love God, we respond to these things in ways that cause them to work for our good. We don’t allow negative emotions to control us, and we resist temptation.
Instruments for Our Good
These things then become the instrument God uses to bring us into abundant promise land living. They make us stronger and ultimately mature. Once we’re mature or our walk is blameless, He will withhold no good thing from us (Psalm 84:11).
But the key to whether negative emotions, temptation or trials of any kind will bring blessing or harm, to whether God uses them for good or the devil uses them for evil lies in our response. If we obey because we love God, we will only be strengthened and blessed.
The True Test of Whether We Love God
According to scripture, if we disobey, it’s because we don’t love God (John 14:21). And we will be weakened and harmed by them. We can say we love God. We can go to church on Sunday. And we can even tithe and do personal devotions.
But the truest test of whether we love God lies in how we respond when we’re tested.
If we allow negative emotions to dictate our conduct, we are like the waves of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. According to James 1: 6, 7 that person shouldn’t expect to receive anything from the Lord.
Negative emotions, temptations and trials of all kinds can be our best friends or worst enemies, depending on how we respond.
All Things Work Together for Good if We Love God, Meaning We Obey Him.
We’ll never make it to our promise land unless we mature. We won’t become mature unless we’re strong. And we won’t be strong unless we’re tempted. So, temptation is actually the doorway to an abundant life if we love God. This also goes for negative emotions or any other test of our faith.
But of course, temptation is also the doorway to destruction and misery if we don’t love God. This passage could be reworded like this: “We know that in negative emotions, temptation and trials God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose”.
To read “part 1” of this post, go to How Do All Things Work together for Good? To read another post with similar thoughts/ideas/meaning to All Things Work Together for Good If I Love God, click here: The Broad Way Gets More and More Narrow .
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