Verse of the Day for May 27

This is a verse often handed to people in pain, sometimes too quickly. It helps to read what comes just before it. Paul has admitted that we do not even know how to pray as we should, and that the Spirit maketh intercession for the saints.

So the verse begins in honesty, not certainty. We do not know what to pray. And yet, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. Not knowing and knowing sit side by side.

Paul does not say all things are good. Loss is not good. Betrayal is not good. He says they work together, woven into something larger by a God who has not stopped working.

Verse twenty nine tells us what the good is. To be conformed to the image of his Son. The good is not always comfort or success. It is becoming like Jesus, and sometimes that happens most deeply in the hardest places.

So if a friend sits with you in a hospital car park and you have nothing wise to say, it is fine to answer honestly. Say you do not know how to pray about this. That honest sentence is exactly where the Spirit begins to intercede.

Honesty about pain does not cancel trust in God's purpose.

The good God works toward is that you look more like his Son.