All Things for Good - Really?

In this episode, Julie explores the promise of Romans 8:28 and how it applies to our lives, even in the midst of hardship. Through the stories of Joseph and David, we see how God works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Julie offers encouragement, practical application, and a reminder to remain humble, faithful, and repentant during difficult seasons.

www.Confidenceingod.com 

Key Topics:

• Introduction to Romans 8:28 and its meaning
• The story of Joseph: From betrayal to blessing
• The story of David: From humble beginnings to king, through trials and failures
• How God’s promises apply to us today
• Practical steps for holding on to faith in hard times
• The importance of humility, faithfulness, and repentance

Transcript

0:01

Hello and welcome to the Confidence in God podcast. I am your host, Julie McGhghy, and our goal today is to help you walk with confidence in God. One of the verses in the Bible many people like to reference or quote when someone is going through hard times is Romans 8:28. Isn't it comforting to know that God will work all things out for good? Yet, there are times when we just can't see any good coming out of our situations, and although we can believe the verse for other people, we have a hard time believing it for ourselves. So we're going to take a look at a couple of people in the Bible who suffered extreme challenges and see if things worked out for good in their situations. And if so, how did they hold on when they couldn't see any good? Before we look at these two biblical examples, I invite you to visit my website at confidenceingod.com, where you can find resources to help you experience more confidence in God generally, and also in your prayer life, specifically. I'll drop the link to the website in the show notes for your convenience. Let's start by reading Romans 8:28."And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose." So the promise for good applies to people who can answer yes to two questions. Do you love God? Are you called according to his purpose? It's generally easy to proclaim,"I love the Lord," thus confidently answering the first question. But sometimes we're a little less certain about the answer to the second question. So let's consider what being called according to his purpose means. We know that no person comes to Jesus except by being drawn by God according to John 6:44. So if you have been drawn to him and you have answered that calling and entered into salvation, then you can confidently answer yes to the second question. You have been called according to his purpose. Since you are listening to this Confidence in God podcast, I trust you have answered yes to both of these questions, so the promise of God applies to you. The first biblical example we're going to look at is Joseph. You can find his story in Genesis throughout chapters 29 through 50. Joseph's life started pretty well. He was the favorite son of his father, Jacob, because Joseph was born in Jacob's old age to Jacob's favorite wife. Jacob had no qualms about openly treating Joseph as his favorite, or when he gave Joseph a special coat of many colors. Also the latter part of Joseph's life was pretty good. When he was 30 years old, he was made a ruler over Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. He lived in the luxury of the Pharaoh's court as he managed the food supply during the seven years of abundance that preceded seven years of famine. During the seven years of famine, God used Joseph to save his family from the famine, thus saving the children of Israel. From an earthly perspective, Joseph was a hero. He lived to be 110 years old and was blessed to see his children and their children to the third generation. At his death, he prophesied that God would move the children of Israel from Egypt and return them to the land, promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But what are some of the things that Joseph had to endure, between that favoritism of his father and the luxury and heroism of his latter years? When Joseph was 17 years old, his older brothers sold him to the Ishmaelites, who sold him as a slave to Potiphar. Potiphar's wife falsely accused Joseph of trying to have inappropriate relations with her, which landed Joseph in prison. After interpreting the dream of the king of Egypt's butler who was released from prison, as Joseph had said would happen based on his dream, the Butler forgot all about Joseph and did not mention him to Pharaoh, which caused Joseph to stay in prison another two years. For 13 years from ages 17 to 30, Joseph served as a slave and in prison. These were dark times for Joseph, where nothing appeared to be good. He could easily, have asked himself,"Where's the good?" Now, let's consider David. His story is found primarily in the books of First and Second Samuel and First Chronicles. Like Joseph, David's life started pretty well. It seems David's life had a quiet beginning. He was the youngest of eight sons of Jesse. He was assigned the responsibility of keeping the family sheep. His time with a flock was spent developing a great skill for music and for fighting lions and bears that threatened the flock. David's life was so quiet and unassuming during his early years as a shepherd that when Samuel, the judge and prophet of Israel, visited Bethlehem as directed by God to anoint the next king after Saul, Jesse, David's father, didn't even think to call David when Samuel called Jesse and his sons to a sacrifice. After Samuel had considered all of Jesse's sons that were brought to the sacrifice, he had to ask Jesse if he had brought all of his sons as requested. It was only then that Jesse considered calling for David to come to the sacrifice. Now, this visit from Samuel changed the trajectory of David's life. David was around 15 years old when at the sacrifice. Samuel anointed David to be king, and the spirit of the Lord came upon him. However, it was 14 to 15 years later when David actually became King. Again, like Joseph, David's life ended well. He served God as king for 40 years, and he died in peace when he was 70. He was known by God as a man after God's own heart, who would fulfill all of God's will? And according to 1 Chronicles 29:28,"and he died in a good old age, full of days, riches and honor." But what are some of the things that David had to endure between his quiet beginnings as a shepherd and the peace, riches and honor of his later years? Well, certainly he had some early family woes. David's own father and brothers thought very little of David as evidenced by Jesse's neglect to call David to join him and his other sons at the sacrifice conducted by Samuel. And also the taunting David received by his brothers when David spoke full of faith regarding God defeating Goliath. And there were political woes. Soon after a high point in David's life when he had killed Goliath with a single stone, King Saul became jealous of David causing him to flee from Saul as he sought to kill David. Then there were wars from outside David's Kingdom. David's home in the village of Ziklag was destroyed, and his family and followers were captured by the Amalekites while David was away. For seven years after being established as King over Judah, David's Kingdom warred against the Kingdom of Israel led by, Ishbosheth, who is Saul's son, David warred against the Philistines to bring the arc of the covenant back to the city of David. Let's not forget David's personal failures and resulting consequences. Certainly the adultery with Bethsheba and the murder of her husband. The death of the first child Bethsheba bore to David. The rape of the only daughter of David that was named in the Bible by one of David's sons. And then the murder of one of David's sons by another of David's sons, who avenged the rape of his sister. And of course, the sins against God. Not only the adultery with Bathsheba, but also taking a military census of the Israelite nation, which was an action strictly forbidden by God. After his sin with Bathsheba, David humbled himself before God and repented, and God was faithful, as he always will be, to forgive David, but that didn't eliminate the consequences of that sin in his family. During the family upheaval, including the death of the child, the rape of his daughter, and the murder of his son by another son, David could easily have been asking,"Where is the good?" Now let's consider our own lives. Do we experience difficult things in our lives? Do we sometimes make bad decisions in our lives and fall into sin just as David did? And do we sometimes ask ourselves,"Where's the good?" We all experience these things. We all wonder what good is being worked through the very difficult times in our lives, even those of our own making. Yet God is faithful. He will do what he says he will do. His promises, including this promise to work all things together for our good if we love him and are called according to his purpose, are sure. They will be fulfilled. God will do it. But how do we hold on when we are in the midst of the difficult times? The only way to hold on is to remain humble, faithful, and repentant. Let's consider Joseph again. According to Genesis 40:8, when interpreting the dreams of the butler and the baker, Joseph explained that interpretations come from God. Joseph clearly remained in communication with God he clearly spent time in prayer as he was taught as a child. Otherwise, he would not have been able to hear from God and provide the interpretation of the dreams. Joseph remained humble. He did not take credit for the ability to interpret dreams. He gave all glory to God and pointed the baker in butler to God. Also, at the end of Joseph's life, he still had faith in God. He prophesied that God would take the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt and return them to the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God truly did work everything in Joseph's life for good, for Joseph who remained faithful to God and served him throughout Joseph's life, even when living in Egypt in Pharaoh's service. Joseph knew he was not a hero. He knew that he did not stand in the place of God. Listen to what he said to his brothers when he identified himself to them in Genesis 50:19-20,"Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass as it is this day, to save much people alive." Joseph acknowledged that God worked all things together for good, even his slavery and imprisonment. He didn't even have the benefit of the Apostle Paul's teaching about God's work in our lives. Yet he knew it to be true. In the end, God worked all of this out for Joseph's good, but he also worked all of this out for the good of all of God's children, which at that time were the children of Israel. Joseph's humility and faithfulness throughout all of the good and bad in his life created an opportunity to work it all out, not only for Joseph's good, but also for those around him. Let's consider David again. In spite of all the early family woes, the political woes, the wars from outside of his kingdom, the personal failures and resulting consequences, and the sin in his life, including those things that were brought on by David's own selfish decisions, David remained humble and faithful to God. Many of the 73 Psalms known to be written by David express his humility and repentance. But none as passionately as Psalm 51, which I encourage you to read. David wrote it after Nathan, the prophet brought a message from God instructing David of the consequences of his sin in 2 Samuel 12:7-12. Because of David's humility, faithfulness, and repentance, God was faithful to work everything that occurred in David's life, the good, the bad, and the ugly together for David's good. Even better, he worked them all together for the good of the children of God. So let's reconsider our own lives. We've already determined that the promise of Romans 8:28 applies to us if we love the Lord and have answered God's call and entered into salvation. When we are going through difficult season in our lives and we can't see any good coming out of it, we need only do what Joseph and David did, which is to remain humble, faithful, and repentant. God will work everything in our lives for our good. And better yet, he will work it all together for the good of your loved ones and his church. We've covered a lot in a short period of time. Let me summarize this really quickly. We can be confident that God is going to work everything in our lives together for good when we love him, and have accepted salvation through Jesus Christ. When we struggle through difficult times in our lives and are asking,"Where's the good?" remember Joseph and David and remain humble, faithful, and repentant. Be confident that God will work everything in our lives for our good. And better yet, he will work it all together for the good of your loved ones and his church. I would love to hear from you. Let me know how you hold on during the difficult times in your life. Share with me your testimony of how God has worked a very difficult situation into good for you and your family. Now, as I mentioned earlier, I invite you to check out my website at confidenceingod.com to find resources to help you experience more confidence in God generally and in prayer more specifically. Just click the link in the show notes and go to the resources tab. That's it for today. Please take a second to subscribe to our show so you'll be notified when future episodes come out. Also, I'd really appreciate it if you would be so kind as to rate or review our show. That way more people can find out about it. Until next time, let's be confident in this, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.