Romans 8: 28
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
I have been thinking about this verse lately. For those of you who have read the Word of the Day for a while, you know that I have written on it multiple times. I call this the Lemonade scripture by which I mean that God takes our lemons and turns them into lemonade. I want to revisit this verse today because we all need to remind ourselves that our Father is always looking after us and turning the sour lemons of life into sweet lemonade.
When Paul wrote that “all” things work out for our ultimate good, what do you think he had in mind? When we speak of all things it necessarily includes good things, mediocre things and bad things. Do you, though, think that Paul was thinking of the good things? No. He could just as easily have written that God causes the bad things in our lives to work out for our good. That is what he was really saying. He was thinking about the stumbling blocks, the “no’s” you get when you’re looking for a yes, and all the other things that don’t go as you would have liked.
The first thing we must understand is what this verse does not mean. It does not say, nor does it mean, that God makes bad things happen to you. Only with this realization can we understand the promise which is embedded here. The promise is that God is with you, and He is going to turn around the junk the devil meant for harm so that it works out for your benefit.
I am intrigued that just a few verses later Paul ties this thought in, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or trouble, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” (v. 35). These verses come together to show the comprehensive work of the Lord. It is the love of God which is working for you such that none of these “bad things” carry the day. Jesus said, “I’ve told you this so that my peace will be with you. In the world you’ll have trouble. But cheer up! I have overcome the world,” (John 16: 33 GW). It is Paul’s revelation of the love of Christ which drives this entire discussion. He understands the dynamic of Father, Son and us. All was done for us.
Paul concludes beginning in verse thirty-seven with, “in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” (verses 37 – 39). He tells us that it is because of the love of God that we overcome those things which do not initially go in our favor. God’s love triumphs over the lemons turning even the most rotten things sweet for us. This conquering, which is our inheritance, is through Him who loves us. Nothing can separate us from God’s love and His love turns things around. In other words, You win, if you don’t give up!
I hope you are seeing this and see that you don’t have to eat lemons. You can, instead, drink lemonade. It is God’s love which sweetens the lemons and turns them into something favorable. The one last thing I would share is that the role you play in this overcoming victory is in calling those things that currently are not what they should be as though they already are (Romans 4: 17). Call that lemon, lemonade. When lemons happen, just call them out. Say, “This has to work to my good because God said so.” Then let go of the stress of it and look forward to it working out for you. Treat it as a seed and look for your harvest!