“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:28 KJV
Many people take this verse to say that everything will eventually work out for good – but it doesn’t. And then because some things just don’t work out, religion has come and said things like it may not have worked out like we wanted it to, but God’s ways are higher than ours – He has a purpose in it. No. That’s twisted. God doesn’t do evil to accomplish good. But He can turn evil (what the devil does) for our good.
We often comfort ourselves by saying things like, it’ll all work out eventually, and it’ll all come together, but that’s just not true. There are a lot of problems in the world, and sometimes those situations are not improving but they are only getting worse. This verse is often twisted to show that God is sovereignly in control of every detail – when He is not – and that His will for your life will automatically come to pass – which is not true.
Now, the good news is that God does want things to work out for us and He does have a plan, but that plan doesn’t automatically come to pass. God wills that no one perishes but all come to salvation (2 Peter 3:9), but not all come to salvation because not all believe the Gospel (Romans 10:9-10). God is extending salvation towards every person on the face of the earth (Titus 2:11) as a free gift, but for it to be enjoyed it needs to be received. If you don’t receive the gift (by heart belief and mouth confession) then you won’t have it.
Believing that everything will just eventually work out independent of what you do is a fatalistic mentality which promotes the idea that no matter what you do, what needs to happen will happen. This breads passivity and passivity will kill you. But, as I have said, God wants things to work out for us, and they can work out for us!
Many people quote Romans 8:28 as only saying that all things work together for good. But that’s not the whole truth because the rest of the verse lists conditions for this promise. All things – not just some, but all – can work together for good, for those who love God. There is the first condition.
This isn’t putting pressure on you to try harder in loving God; I believe that those who love God is firstly referring to a Christian. The unbeliever doesn’t have the promise of everything just working out for them – this is for the Christian. If you’re a believer, then you can and should expect things to work out for you better than they naturally would because you love God and are allowing Him to show you His love and goodness for you by turning bad things around (Ephesians 2:6-7; 1 John 4:10).
You are a child of God and can expect things to work out and be in your favour because you have God’s favour in your life. But this only works if you receive it by believing it.
