Trusting in His Plan and Purpose

by Jordyn van Gaalen

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking this SoundCloud link.

“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.”
Romans 8:28 NIV

This verse – while it is a verse of great hope – doesn’t mean that all things will be good. This earthly life will never be good in the way that our eternity-drawn-hearts desire. This earthly life will never be perfect and it will never be heaven, because we are separated from God. Until we are with our Father, fully united in His Kingdom, life will never be as it was meant to be.

But even so, God is working for our good. For those who love Him and follow after Him, He is working good in every hard circumstance and every struggle. He works good for those who love him and trust Him wholeheartedly. 

God is renewing, redeeming, and restoring. Through this mess, through the pain, through the unbearable, through the fear.

“See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.”
Isaiah 43:19 NIV

God is working good according to His purpose. Not our purpose. His ways are often not our ways. We would often skip through the difficult seasons. We would prefer to not bear the heart wrenching losses. We would not choose to take up the cross and suffer.

God’s ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

Though we might not have picked the same path that God has chosen, we can trust that He has a purpose and that He will work good in us, for us, and through us. We may not see the good in this lifetime, but He has made this promise, and He is the one to keep those promises. 

We have been called. We can fix our eyes on the Kingdom that is to come. When we don’t see the why in the course God has led us on, we can cling to the hope of eternity. We know there is life to come where there will be no sorrow and no more tears, and we will see Him face to face.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado