"It's all Good"

Scripture I'm reflecting on:  Romans 8:28

     And we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, for those who are called to His purpose."

I cannot claim to have read the entire Bible (probably not even half at this point), but I would have to imagine this is one of the greatest promises in the entire book.  The real question that we have to continually ask ourselves is, do we believe it?  We particularly need to ask this questions when things are not going our way.....

Reflection:

I admittedly have attempted numerous times to read through Romans in its entirety in the last few weeks and have fallen victim to the droopy eyes before finishing each time (because of reading late at night, not because of the content :)).  I happened to wake up much earlier than anticipated this morning however, and used the extra un-anticipated time to finally complete the reading.  I don't think it was a coincidence that it worked out that way for me....

Sparing anyone reading this a long boring story, I will simply say that recently, things aren't exactly going the way I would "ideally" draw them up in my own mind, on a number of different levels.  Maybe the most obvious of these levels is in my current job application process.  Essentially in short, the opportunities I seem to be getting positive feedback/response from are ones that I'm not all that excited about, and the ones that I really REALLY want are continually falling by the wayside (so to speak).  

I've always, as I'm sure many people can relate to at certain times, battled with the concept of "God's plan."
"Everything has a purpose, reason, etc."  There are a number of different ways this is expressed (probably better than I just did), but you get the basic idea of what I'm getting at.  I could make a 200 page document just listing the things that have happened in my life where I don't understand "the purpose" or "how they could possibly be for the good in the end".  I have asked this question a lot lately, how am I supposed to evaluate the trials in my life as being "for the good."

Well, reading this scripture today gave me my answer, one that was actually pretty simple.  "All things work together for the good of those who love God."  Answer:  Continue loving God.  Pray.  Do Good.  Don't lose faith.  To many this may have already been easy or apparent, but reading this actually lifted the clouds from my thoughts.  Instead of my old approach of constantly analyzing and trying to figure out what "the good" that comes from the "bad" trials in my life, I just simply need to have faith that it's there, or will be there.  I don't need to understand how or why, I just need to believe that it's true.  I think if we all could do this, which I can certainly attest to is not always easy, then these "low points" in our lives probably won't cause too much stress at all.  Nobody (believe me, nobody) things, examines, and analyzes past occurrences more than I do, "what went wrong" "why did that happen" "why me"....so if I can read this scripture and change my attitude, I know you can.

Prayer:  Pray to be the best person (best father, best mother, best husband wife, bf/gf, brother/sister, friend/neighbor) you can be.  As long as we do that and remain faithful, things will work out.