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God is very involved in the lives of his children. He cares for us, loves us, and guides us. These things are understood by the majority of believers out there. But one thing that isn’t, is that God actually does work on our behalf.

There is a lot going on in the background of our lives that we simply don’t understand. For instance, you can’t see your engine at work when you’re driving, yet you know it’s working. Again, you can’t see the mechanics of your phone, yet it works. The same can be said for our lives. We can’t necessarily see the work of God on our lives, yet we’re living and prospering, so he must be working. Right?

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

The Bible tells us that all things work together for the good of those who love God, but how? Certainly, there are Christians that are not seeing the good and the prospering. If all things are working together for our good, why can’t I see the good?

This verse puzzled me for a bit. That’s because I knew that it had to be true, but in what sense, I didn’t know.

I saw that there were two logical possibilities.

• All things work together for those that love God, because they love God.

• All things work together for those that love God, because he actually worked things around for them.

We are going to take a look at both of these possibilities, and look at scriptural examples to greater answer the question, how do things work together for our good?

For Those That Love God

My first response to that verse would be to immediately look at the world, look at what I can see, and decide, things don’t look good. In my life, things are not necessarily working together well, and I can’t see that in every Christians life. So, the logical conclusion would be that

1. That verse isn’t true (which obviously can’t be right).

2. There’s another meaning to that verse.

I found that the most-right answer had to be that all things work together for our good, simply because we love God. Looking at many strong believers, you can see that they can go through hardship after hardship and still have faith. They can still be happy, have joy, and praise God. Joy and goodness after all, are fruits of the spirit, and those shouldn’t depend on our situations.

So, that had to be the right answer. Because we love God, it doesn’t matter what we go through, because things are still going to be good for us. I can even see this play out in my own life.

Around two years ago, my sister passed away, and we were super close. I had already struggled with depression and anxiety up until that point, so I was afraid it would get worse. However, something awesome happened. The Lord came to me, revealed himself as a friend, and instantly, everything changed. I was happy, things were good, and I was content with my life that I had. Why? Because I had begun to love God.

Things Work Together

I was content with that interpretation at first. But since then, I have had a change of mind. This came because I had started to hear stories, and testimonies of God working things out. Things that shouldn’t have happened, people that shouldn’t have met, and things working out, that shouldn’t have.

Suddenly, I had realized that it couldn’t have just meant that things just are okay because we love God. It had to mean something greater. This urged me to push past the carnal, what I can see, and push on to the spiritual. To look at things that I can’t see and trust in the Lord greater than I ever had. Luckily, he gives us some scripture for this.

Let’s look at the story of Joseph.

The Story of Joseph

Jacob, later renamed Israel, was the father of the twelve men that became the tribes of Israel. He had one son that he favored more than all the others, Joseph. He made him a great robe, and clearly showed him the most love out of the twelve. This made the other men hate Joseph, and it only got worse.

Joseph had dreams. Not just any dreams though, he had prophetic dreams. He ended up having a dream that interpreted his eleven brothers bowing down to him and had a second dream that interpreted his brothers and his parents bowing down. He was rejected for this dream, that even Jacob, who adored Joseph, rebuked him for it.

His brothers held so much resentment, that they sold Joseph into slavery, took his robe and faked his death so that others wouldn’t go looking. Things didn’t seem to work much for Joseph’s good, at least at this point.

From there, he became the servant of Potiphar, a very wealthy and important man. He prospered until he refused to sleep with Potiphar’s wife and found his way in prison.

He then prospered at the prison, where he was at for many years, and the warden even gave Joseph responsibility over the entire prison!

It was a pretty uphill climb for Joseph, but he eventually found himself at the top of Egypt, after interpreting Pharoh’s dreams. This led to a confrontation with his brothers and the realization of his dreams many years earlier.

Joseph was at the bottom, being a slave and a prisoner, and brought to the top. It’s safe to say that the Lord worked that situation out for his good.

How Did It Work?

So, how did it all work out? What did Joseph do differently than most of us? Did he had more faith? Did he pray more?

When you look at the life of Joseph, one thing is clear. He never complained, he never doubted, he never lost faith, and he always persisted in his character. In fact, Joseph is one of the very few major Biblical characters that never really failed. David slept with Bathsheba and killed her husband. Abraham lied about his wife out of fear. Moses killed a man. But Joseph never had a major moral faliure, including a loss of faith.

Joseph Persevered

Far too often, we go through tests and trials, but we give up. We don’t preserve and we don’t persist.

James 1:12 says,

“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”

We must preserve through trials, because that is where the blessings can be found. In the trials, the Lord is at work on our behalf, so if we quit and give up, how will he work it out for us?

There are multiple scriptures about the man that persists, and how blessed he is, and how much delight he can take. But we don’t see those blessings if we don’t withstand the trials.

Joseph Kept Faith

Joseph had a dream, two of them actually. That is, the dreams that reflected his family bowing down to him. Those dreams were one of the reasons he was able to persevere. He saw the vision that the Lord gave him, held onto it, and knew it must come to pass.

What are you dreaming about? Or envisioning? The Bible gives us many promises to hold onto. Those promises will come to pass and will work together for your good. However, they won’t do you much good if you aren’t mediating and living on those promises.

To be transparent, I have been holding onto a vision from God, and I have not seen this vision come to pass yet. But the promises that the Lord has made me and the scriptures he gave to us, I am able to use as encouragement. From those promises, and from the scriptures, I keep faith, and I am able to believe in what God has shown me.

I encourage you all to do the same. Keep believing in the promises of scripture. Hold onto every word.

As an extra resource, I strongly recommend checking out this God’s Promises book. It has been very helpful for me, and gives direct promises from scripture, broken down by category for whatever help you need.

Joseph Trusted God

Although trust and faith seem like the same thing, they are vastly different, especially in this context.

When Joseph went through trial after trial, he could’ve defended himself. He could’ve accused told the truth about Potiphar’s wife, but he kept trusting the Lord. He could’ve done the work himself, in the first place, by trying to make amends with his sinful brothers. On countless occasions, he could’ve compromised. Instead, he trusted the Lord, went through the hardships, and kept trusting him. That is so important to Joseph’s story.

Scholars claim that Joseph was in prison from 10-12 years of his life. I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure if I could keep having faith and keep trusting God for that vision. But Joseph did and that means that we can too.

1 Corinthians 3:6 tells us that God gives the growth. Certainly, Joseph understood that. That is why, for years, he didn’t try to work things out for good himself, but trusted God to bring the increase.

You’re Already Blessed

Scripture tells us that Joseph, even when he was not in a great position, was a prosperous man (Genesis 39:2). This wasn’t when he was with Jacob, or when he was one of the most powerful men in Egypt, but when he was a slave. He was blessed, even before he was able to see the great blessings and vision that the Lord had for him. How much more, with the Holy Spirit, are we blessed and prosperous?

We are blessed and highly favored (Romans 4:8). We don’t need to do anything to earn it. There’s no work we could do to deserve it. We are simply blessed.

So even in the trials, remember that you are blessed, no matter what. You were blessed when you weren’t in trials, you’re blessed in the trials, and you will be blessed after them. That’s just a fact.

Final Thoughts

You are a blessed person. It will always be that way. However, in order to see the blessings and receive what God has in store for you, you must be like Joseph. That entails a few things.

Be perseverant. Keep the faith. Trust the Lord.

When you follow these steps, it doesn’t matter what trial you go through, it will work out for your good. Scripture promises that.

In reality, we really have the easy part, and God has the difficult part. We only have to believe that the Lord will fulfill his promises, and he never lies. Take some encouragement in that.

Lastly, if you need any further encouragement, jump in the scriptures. The Bible is full of promises and encouraging verses for us. On top of that, we also have the Holy Spirit, which helps it all make sense. With those two things, we can have faith on top of faith in the Lord, and our futures will be made certain.

Have a great week!