Romans 8:28 - "And we know that God works through all things together for good, for those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose."
God works through and orchestrates a whole lot of things, but surely we're not supposed to credit God with orchestrating all things. I mean, one time, did God orchestrate me locking my office keys in my car at the same time that I'd locked my car keys in my office? As Forrest Gump says, "Stupid is as stupid does." I would never put my stupid key orchestration on the Lord.
But the Lord (not luck, mind you) certainly gets credit for orchestrating that the only other person in the building at the late hour of my stupidity was one of only two people who had a key to my office so I could get the Bible study material I needed.
And another time, God certainly gets credit for orchestrating the timing of me standing next to a hospital elevator at the exact time a church member exited the elevator because it required no less than three straight, separate incidents of people I didn't know, calling from behind me, asking me to come back down the hospital hall to talk and pray with them, which created the exact two second window that was needed to bump into the church member at the elevator.
And another time, God certainly gets credit for orchestrating the timing of me bumping into the one person I really needed to see at a hospital as they, amongst thousands of people, happened to be walking out a wide, long corridor at the exact time as I was walking in the same way.
And another time, God certainly gets credit for orchestrating the timing of a church member who said they'd had a dream about prison ministry and then awoke to read an appointed devotion that was on the exact verse that they'd preached from the Bible to the prison inmates in their dream. And now, years later, that person has ministered in Jefferson County Alabama jails in Birmingham so that hundreds of inmates have been brought closer than they were to God's saving grace in Christ. And some weren't close at all!!!
In sum, when God says through Paul "that God works through all things together for good" (Romans 8:28), God doesn't mean that he's only reacting to bad things that happen and hurt us or reacting to stupid things like my stunt of locking up all my keys in different places. God is not just reactive.
God, being all-knowing and therefore knowing what's ahead of us, is proactively working out a plan to orchestrate blessings that will encourage us, even when we're touched by things that aren't so encouraging.
The one and only mighty and good God is greater than anything that will come your way today. And he is already orchestrating your blessings for today through those things. So believe it, and spread the word because, through faith in Jesus, we can 100% know and also see that it's true.
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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