Children, who know they are loved, are confident in their parents and safe in their home.  In the same way, those who are trusting Jesus Christ instinctively know that God is good.  That personal inner conviction is a part of the work of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:16).  However, when circumstances are hard and the jigsaw puzzle of life seems to have important pieces missing, we need to be reminded from the Bible that God is always at work for the good of those who love Him.

Not everything that happens is good, but God is able to work His plan despite everything that seems to be against it.  God is at work in ‘all things’.  God alone knows how to bring triumph out of disaster and joy out of pain. And He is doing this all the time for every believer.  He does not ignore or passively watch His people’s suffering (Exodus 3:7-10).  There is no circumstance in which God is not at work to do good to those who love Him and those who will come to love Him.

Of course, we cannot see how He is working behind the scenes but the Bible assures us that He is working. Neither can we see the end point - the culmination of the networking of all His purposes.  Whatever we may think God might do, He often surprises us to achieve His purposes in ways we could never have imagined.  But note that God’s work is directed to achieving His purposes and not ours.  

This much quoted verse has sustained many believers in times of testing.  It has particularly helped people to trust that God will take the blackest as well as the brightest events of our lives and weave them together so that His glory may be more clearly seen.  So, it is important to tune our observation to our faith.  A little rhyme goes like this: ‘Two men stared out through prison bars; one saw mud, the other stars.’  If you are looking for the glory of God, you will see it much more quickly than those who have dismissed the possibility.  So trust Him today. You may not be able to see how anything good can come, but He can.  And He will deliver all that is good ... because He loves His children who are all destined to  share in His glory (Romans 8:17).