Faith in God when life is difficult. 2

There are two kinds of promises in the Bible, conditional, and unconditional promises.  Unconditional promises are ones in which God has promised to do something irrespective of how we may respond. An example of an unconditional promise is Hebrews 13:5b: “I will never leave you or forsake you.”  On the other hand, the conditional promise has a certain criterion which needs to be true of us to have the assurance that God will keep the promise.  Romans 8:28 is a conditional promise because it says that God will bring about what is promised to “those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  Why is this promise specifically directed towards those who love God?

Earlier in the chapter Paul has been referring to those who have the Spirit of sonship, that we are children, and “heirs and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” (Romans 8:17)  “We are eagerly waiting for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (v.23)   This is what we are hoping for, and waiting for.  Furthermore, the Spirit helps us in our weakness enabling us in our praying even interceding for us in our weaknesses. (v.27)

It is in this context of a new relationship of sonship with God that we have the promise in verse 28. 

To come back to the question we asked earlier as to why?  This promise is directed towards those who love God, it is because we are now his children, and He is our Father.  As Father, His love for us will be seen in His desire to bless us with what is good.  As Jesus reminds us, “your Father in heaven [will] give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11).  This is why when we pray to Him as our Father in our times of difficulties, we can trust and rest assured that He has it all under control, and will use the “all things” for our good. 

The “all things” may be tough and hard to deal with at times, but we know that He will be with us, and He knows how much we can take and will only allow what we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13), and we can rest assured that “The Lord watches over all who love him” (Psalm 145:20).

            What an encouragement to know that because of this relationship with God as our Father, we can commit all things to Him because we are His children.  We can have this confidence in Him because we love Him, just as we know He loves us (1 John 4:19).  And as we believe and actively trust God in those difficult times, our faith in God can grow as we experience His love and care in bringing good out of the trials that we go through.

            Next time, we will look at some of the different objectives that God has in bringing out ‘good’ in the ‘all things’ of life.