Romans 8:28

We often quote this verse, don’t we:

“For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God”

But, so often our reciting it is because of our desire to have all things orbiting around us and our assuming that if God is about doing us good we ought to join Him in making all things good for us.

So, what about difficult times? Heartaches? Real Loss?

“Ergo, shipwreck, losses, etc. work together for the good of them that love God. Hence I infer that losses, disappointments, ill-tongues, loss of friends, houses or country, are God's workmen, set on work to work out good to you, out of everything that befalleth you. Let not the Lord's dealing seem harsh, rough, or un-fatherly because it is unpleasant. When the Lord's blessed will bloweth across your desires, it is best, in humility, to strike sail to him, and to be willing to be led any way our Lord pleaseth. It is a point of denial of yourself, to be as if you had not a will, but had made a free disposition of it to God, and had sold it over to him. And to make use of his will for your own is both true holiness, and your ease of peace. You know not what the Lord is working out of this, but you shall know it hereafter."

S. Rutherford