We know that for those who love God all things work together for good. – Romans 8:28
Watches used to have mechanisms inside them instead of sensors and a battery. The watch ran because of gears that moved in opposite directions to turn the hands on the watch face. One wheel turned one way, another turned another way; yet they worked together to keep accurate time, as long as the wearer remembered to keep the mainspring wound to keep the gears moving.
As a believer in the Lord Jesus, the good things in your life might be compared to the gears that run clockwise; the bad things, trials, and difficulties, compared to the gears moving counter-clockwise. The Master Watchmaker uses both the good and the bad to refine you, His child, into the image of His Son.
D. Stuart Briscoe writes that “believers increasingly appreciate the ongoing nature of God’s craftmanship in their lives… Even when some of the pieces appear to be too dark or odd-shaped, they ‘know’ that God is fitting lives together which will in eternity resemble His Son.” Those who love God understand that they are living in an “age of construction.” There can be special delight in knowing that God, the Designer, can use the joy-filled times and the discouraging times for your good on earth as well as for your eternal good.
Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ is a dividing line. Pray for the many in this nation and in government who are currently on the side of unbelief. Intercede for those who lack a love for God, so that they may believe and enjoy the transformation God intends for His children.
Today’s Verse: 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.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: Romans 8:28-39
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
