Romans Chapter 8, Verse 28
From BibleWiki
28: οιδαμεν δε οτι τοις αγαπωσιν τον θεον παντα συνεργει εις αγαθον τοις κατα προθεσιν κλητοις ουσιν
28: And we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are the called according to his
purpose.
28: And we know that to them that love God all things work together
unto good: to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be
saints.
It is a common belief among Christians who have heard it over and over, and some have even read it and taken it at face value. Romans 8:28 in the KJV reads, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.†For most Christians, this verse tells them that no matter what we go through, good or bad, God is working it out for our good. Just as most other doctrines inspired by Satan and propagated by well meaning Christians, Pastors, Teachers, Apostles, etc, there doctrine is part truth and part lie. The truth is that, God along with the Holy Spirit and angels, do have a way of turning bad situations around and even bringing good things out of really bad situations. The lie comes in when we somehow welcome tragedy in order to get the good result, and therefore belief that we have to have rain in order to see the sunshine.
Lets look at the following example: There was a single father that was strung out on drugs and had two daughters. The daughters went to church every Sunday with their aunt. The girls often prayed for their father to be delivered from drug addiction so that they could live in peace with their father. The father wanted to change, but didn't know how. One night after a long binge of doing meth and crack cocaine, the father overdosed and lay helpless on the floor. The girls came home from church and found the father lying on the floor and the aunt, which was also the father's sister, was distraught and frantically dialed 911. Long story short, the father ended up in a coma for 2 weeks and the girls were certain that he was going to die. After coming out of the coma, the father finally realized how his addiction negatively affected his family. He finally decided to go to church, read, study and live out the Word of God that he was learning in church, and was totally delivered from drugs and alcohol. Now the question is, did God make all of this happen so the father and girls would have a happier life? Surely not! God was speaking to the father years before the coma. He even tried to speak to the father before the girls mother gave up on the relationship. God could have brought out the good result without the tragedy.
What does the verse actually mean? Well to find out what it means we have to find out what it says. I'm not a greek scholar, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night (and did a google search). Read this article to get a good understanding how this verse is translated. You also have to look at what the bible says in context. To do this simply back up a few verses and read what Paul is actually talking about. Actually, to get into the mindset of what he's addressing here, you may have to go back a few chapters. Paul is addressing this letter to the Romans.
