It Does All Make Perfect Sense!
We live in a world that runs like clockwork. Everyone and everything are predictable. No surprises. Nothing bad ever happens. What is planned for always happens. And unlike what Billy Joel sings, the good do not die young.
Wait? What? You are right now shaking your head, “What world do you live in, Dave?” I live in the same broken world you live in, and sadly, the world does not run like clockwork, not much is predictable, there are surprises galore, plans get derailed every single day, and sometimes the good do die young.
Life is filled with moments of joy, sometimes even great joy. But it is also filled with misfortune, bad luck, troubles, difficulties, suffering, sorry, misery, heartbreak. We celebrate and party in the highs, but we wish the lows never happened. So, since bad stuff does happen, since we do face adversity, how do we not let those moments derail us?
Let me try to answer that question. God’s will is perfect (Romans 12:1-2). That perfect will is his divine plan for your life and for my life. God’s will is also permissive, in that he chooses to allow things to happen that he takes no pleasure in. These things that he allows indirectly help to accomplish his perfect will. We need to look no further than the Garden of Eden. God created humans as moral beings, made in his image. He also created us with our own will, and the ability to make our own decisions. And in the Garden, disobedience was chosen, and sin entered the world. God’s perfect will did not include all the consequences that have stemmed from that original sin, or the sins we commit today, yet he allows those as part of his permissive will.
Every bad thing that happens in your life, or in my life, has been sifted through God’s permissive will. He allows those things to grow us spiritually, to achieve his good plan and purpose, to transform us into the image of Jesus. We find these words in Romans 8:28 – “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
That verse is regularly taken out of context and misused. The context is that in Romans 8, Paul has been describing the Christian life as one of groaning, longing to escape the sufferings of life, waiting in hope for the day we will be resurrected and share in God’s glory (Romans 8:18-25).
Back to v.28. I believe this verse tells us that for Christians (the verse cannot be rightfully applied to non-Christians), in and through all things (work together), even pain and suffering, God is acting. He is at work with the purpose of making things good. But, “good” does not necessarily mean the best possible outcome for us, right now, from our vantage point. Rather, good means he is working in and through everything in order to serve his good, pleasing, and perfect will for all of his creation, with the ultimate good being glorifying us eternally (Revelation 21:1-4).
So, from our perspective, when life does not run like clockwork, when nothing makes sense, when pain and suffering seems to great, all which happen, we can walk by faith, trusting in a perfect and loving God, knowing that perfect understanding will only come in heaven, and that right now, in this very moment, from God’s point of view, everything does all make perfect sense, and He is working it all together for good!
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