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Recently I made the decision to begin the process of looking for a new position. After that decision was made, I sat down and wrote the following, reflecting my on faith and as an encouragement to the church.
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 NRSV
This last week I was asked to do the funeral for a 17-year-old girl who passed away due to blood clots in the lungs. How do you tell that family what Romans 8:28 says? From this side of heaven we say that it is for
the most part a mystery. We have to look at our life in its entirety. When we look at individual sections, current happenings, it may be too difficult, too painful, to see what good God can work at that time. This
verse takes faith, a level of trust in God's goodness and God's love. This takes trusting God through the many circumstances we face in life. There is a need to believe that God is good and that God truly loves us
and wants the best for us. An illustration I like very much comes from the making of a tapestry or maybe a cross stitch design. If you look at the underneath it can be a mess, yet when you turn it over it is a
lovely picture. When we get to heaven we'll see the picture that is our life.
It is so easy to think that the verse just says "all things work together for good;" that is not what it says. Because this is a fallen world, everything does not work for good. This phrase is modified by two
conditions. First, things working together for good "for those who love God." This is the first requirement. We are commanded to love God with "all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and
with all your strength" (Mark 12:30). In everything that we are called to pass through, we need to keep our love for God first. Just keep in mind that Paul is the writer of the letter to the Romans. Paul was beaten,
stoned, shipwrecked and in all this he can still stand by Romans 8:28.
Next, we must remember the second qualifying phrase, "who are called according to his purpose." We are called by God. If God calls us, then He has a purpose for our lives. There is a divine plan and God calls us to
fit into his scheme of things. We are not to try and fit God into our plans.
Now being called can be confusing because of the usage of the term. We tend to think of being called with doing some specific thing. We talk of being called to be ordained, or being called to a special form of
service. So we tend not to see ourselves as called since we are just the folk in the pews.
Yet we are each and everyone of us called, called to be disciples – followers. Just as the first disciples were called by Jesus in Galilee, so we are called to follow him.
I have made a note to myself concerning Mark 4:35 – 40, when the disciples were in the boat with Jesus and the storm arose: "The reason they were in the boat was because of obedience to Jesus; trouble came while
obeying Jesus." So when we have trouble or difficulties, we have to remember that we are following Jesus, He is in the boat with us.
We also are called in our baptism to be part of the body, the community of faith. So when we face changes, difficulties, or trials, we do not do so alone. We are part of the body of Christ with brother and sister
together.
This is how we face whatever comes our way – trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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