The True Meaning of Romans 8:28

Hey, you beautiful people!! I hope you are doing well, and are sticking through this crazy quarantine life! I am actually loving it! Well, except for the part where I don't get to see my friends, but I am just loving the slowness of life right now. It is super calming. Normally, I am running all over the place fitting schoolwork into my schedule, but I can just breathe and it is soo refreshing. Are there times where I am not loving this quarantine as much? Oh, yeah! I have so many plans for the near future and now there is nothing but uncertainty. But, I am just resting in the fact that God has a plan, He is sovereign, and He has already been right where we are and He knows exactly how this will all come to pass. So, in speaking of all of this I thought it would be a good time to go over Romans 8:28. It goes over the subject of suffering, if you look a little in between the lines.

Romans 8:28 is such a common verse. I don't know about you but it is probably the most common verse that I see represented; I hear people quote it, I see it on notebooks, binders, and phone cases. Like I said EVERYWHERE.

But I think more people more people than not tend to misinterpret this verse.

Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those called according to his purpose."

Sound familiar now?

Oh, I can't wait to jump into this verse.

A fun little fact about me: Romans is one of my favorite books of the Bible!

Ok, time to get back on track! hehe

The Power of the Mighty ''All"

The main problem with people misinterpreting this verse is that they miss or skip over one very important word.

"ALL"

This word is so small but holds so much power, especially in this verse.

The definition of All is the whole of (used in referring to quantity, extent, or duration.)

So what this verse is saying is that God works ALL things for the good for his people. All meaning good and bad things.

This verse is not just saying that your life will be perfect if you follow Christ. NO! Heavens, no! We will go through hard times, it is the way of this world; we sinned causing all of this evil to enter the world.

But, like the verse says, "in all things" [pleasant and painful] God works for the good for those who love Him.

The Purpose:

This verse isn't saying that we won't endure hard times; it's saying that God is with us and has a purpose through this struggle.

God does not promise to bless Christians by removing all the suffering in our lives, but He does promise to bless us THROUGH the suffering.

Here is an example of how God works ALL things for the good:

Let's talk about Paul! Can we do that for a second! Well, I am going to so buckle up!

In Acts 14, it talks about Paul getting stoned. When Paul got stoned, his disciplines gathered him up and they went to Iconium and Antioch.

You are probably wondering, the same as I did, what these two places are? Well, these two places are located in Galatia. So, shall we just jump on over to the book of Galatians? Paul writes this to the Galatians, "You know that it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first."

This "bodily ailment" brought so many more people to know Christ. There are two amazing points I want to make about this "bodily ailment"

1. Paul did not plan to stop at these places when he strategically planned his journey, but due to the situation he was in, he stopped there. God brought him there!

2. The people of Galatia got to see the pure joy of knowing Christ through suffering. Seeing someone not only hold fast to their faith in suffering but also find joy in it is such a beautiful and powerful thing. Just look at Ruth and Naomi! Naomi lost both of her sons and her husband, but Naomi stood firm in her faith, and that s what helped Ruth believe in God.

Count it all Joy:

James 1:2-4 "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing."

These trials and hard times will come our way, that won't ever change, but our attitudes can.

We can find joy in the pain, a rainbow in the rain.

We find joy in the sufferings knowing that they are here for a reason. God's wisdom is way more powerful than anything that we may hold in our brains.

So, this journey will include trials, even Jesus himself said that, but the destination is spiritual maturity. So, stop just focusing on the trials and focus on your faith.

Cling to your faith and God during those hard times, because sometimes that is all we have.

Jesus and Persecution:

Listen to the words that Jesus spoke, Uh..well in your case read the words that Jesus spoke!

He spoke these words to his disciples:

"If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. Remember the word I said to you: A servant is no greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name because they do not know him who sent me." ~John 15:18,20-21

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!

"Behold I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. And you will be hated by men for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved." ~Matthew 10:16&22

This would normally be the time where I would writing something on these verses, but this time I am just gonna let Jesus do the talking! Because you know that he will say it way better than I will ever be able to!

Our Helper:

Let's just read the two verses before Romans 8:28, shall we?

"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the spirit interceded for the saints according to the will of God." Romans 8:26-27

And then let's jump back to Matthew 10, where Jesus talks to the disciples about persecution.

"When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. " Matthew 10:19-20

What these verses SCREAM OUT LOUD to us is that God will always help us when we are weak, and He gives us the words when we can not speak.

Ok, I don't know if you have noticed or not but I have been throwing out some awesome rhymes in this blog! haha

I hope you enjoyed this and it brought some encouragement your way! Hope you have an amazing week! Let me know what you thought of this blog post! 😉