Romans 8:28, commentary and pictures

All things work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to his purpose. Those who love God keep his commandments and trust fully in him, and those called according to his purpose are consecrated to his holy service, clothed in Christ's righteousness and led by his Spirit. God sees the end from the beginning and orders what is best from his great eternity, so that nothing touches believers without his permission and he continually works for their present and eternal good. The good he works is to conform them to the image of his Son, consuming the dross through refining fire and forming character for everlasting life, so that sufferings, sorrows, trials, bereavement, sickness, reproach, opposition, mistakes, delays and calamities become his workmen for their perfection. Therefore sufferers are to trust the heavenly Father as a child trusts a parent, bear trials without murmuring, give thanks in everything, and rest in simple faith letting him work in his own way.

Recipients of the Promise

The promise is that all things work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to His purpose. This good is bound up with God's purpose to conform them to the image of His Son, for those whom He foreknew and predestined He also calls and justifies and glorifies. It belongs with being saved by hope for what is unseen with patient waiting, while in weakness and not knowing what to pray the Spirit helps infirmities and intercedes with unutterable groanings according to God's will. In that hope Jesus in human nature with bodily wants and weariness was braced by prayer to the Father for duty and trial, and the great Physician is present to heal every malady. Because God is for His people none can be against them, and having not spared His own Son but delivered Him up He will with Him freely give all things, so that neither death nor life nor angels nor powers nor things present or to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature can separate them from His love in Christ, to whom life's troubles can therefore be brought for overcoming grace.

Everything God permits works for their good, for Christ's presence surrounds them as the Father's presence surrounded Christ, so that a blow aimed at them falls upon Christ their defense and nothing touches them without the Lord's permission. God keeps accidents and circumstances in His own hand and makes obstacles, mistakes, discouragement and apparent loss work together for good to those who love Him. This calls for steadfast heart service true to principle under every circumstance, with assurance that God prizes and rewards every soul who does his best, so that even when advancement seems impossible and the future cannot be seen clearly they can keep working in faith and hope under discouragement and losses because the work is the Lord's and He brings good from it. He sees the end from the beginning and therefore can be trusted to make all things work together for good to those that love Him.

Those who love God are those who keep His commandments and do His word, abide in Christ and belong to Him, and trust fully in Him. Loving Him in this sense means serving from principle rather than feeling, for Christian hope does not rest on joyous feelings but on the sure word of promise beholding God's glory beyond the shadows. Every experience, including adversity, trial, depression, clouds shadowing the horizon, a dark way, suffering, sorrow, temptation, persecution, privation and hardship, is turned to benefit for such lovers of God. Hard times only give opportunity to show sincerity of faith and love, and depression is no evidence that God has changed or forsaken, for He remains the same, so faith must pierce the gloom with the eye single and fixed heavenward, keeping the riches of Christ's grace and the lessons of His love before the mind, trusting even unto death, laying hold on the Father's promises and remembering His former dealings. Even persecution cannot defeat those who so trust and obey, and even when the wicked prevail for a time and many things transpire that are positively productions of evil, their suffering spreads faith, wins souls to Christ and glorifies God's holy name, for truth is effectual and will bear away the victory, and opposition does not shake the steadfast soul rooted to the eternal rock.

Those who love God are identified as people called according to His purpose, and for them Bible biography gives sorrow a higher lesson, for their lives witness that God is good and that goodness is supreme. Those thus called are consecrated to a high and holy service, set apart by grace, clothed in Christ's righteousness, and given the Holy Spirit to represent the Redeemer. They are God's chosen ones, and God works in and through them, so that believing the Word means loving God in this way, with God working within to bear about a heavenly atmosphere and to give a valuable experience in spiritual things. God is present to work out His purpose and will for the good of all who will be worked, whether professed believers or not, requiring prayer and firm faith that those newly arrived, such as students coming to a full school, may be correctly managed. He even arranges blessings they did not seek or plan, for He is kind and gracious, too wise to err and too good to do harm, so believers can trust all their interests safely into His hands.

God's Sovereign Overruling

God sees the end from the beginning and therefore can be trusted to make all things work together for good to those who love him. From His great and calm eternity He orders what His providence sees is best, with heaven and earth at His command and all things open to His divine survey above earthly confusion and distraction. He knows just what is needed before necessities are presented, while human beings see only a little way ahead and would make mistakes through prejudice, weakness, self-deception and ignorance if left to plan for themselves. Causes and effects are linked together, yet He sees not as man sees, for His thoughts are not man's thoughts nor His ways man's ways, and the way ahead cannot always be seen when circumstances develop in unexpected ways. Those who love God can therefore rely on a care far above their own and look to Him in every time of trouble with no misgivings, confident He never becomes confused and never leaves His workmen without divine direction.

Everything God permits to come to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose works for their good. Christ's presence surrounds His followers as the Father's presence surrounded Christ, so that a blow aimed at them falls upon Christ, who is their defense. Nothing can touch or reach them without the Lord's permission. Every experience and circumstance — all sufferings, sorrows, temptations, trials, griefs, persecutions, privations and hardships — can thus serve as God's workman to bring good to those who abide in Christ and belong to Him, with Christ's presence giving comfort through them.

God continually and constantly works for the present and eternal good of His people and of those who love Him. Even in the darkest days, when appearances seem forbidding and circumstances look forbidding, He is working out His will and doing all things well in their behalf. Those who love and serve Him need not fear but have faith, receiving renewed strength day by day. God will place His understanding at their service so they do not err in carrying out His purposes. Trials come to all to lead them to examine their hearts and see whether they are purified from all that defiles, and things happen that seem unexplainable, yet those who trust in the Lord and humble themselves before Him will be kept and the enemy will not be permitted to triumph over them.

In tender care and infinite love God orders even the experiences that seem most trying and hard to bear so that all things combine for good. What finite minds now see as confusion and broken purposes, or as a broken promise, is perfect and beautiful harmony. In the world to come and in heaven, when all that perplexed is made plain, hard things are explained, and the mysteries of grace with the reasons for His providences unfold, what seemed confusing will be seen as part of a perfect harmony. This loving purpose will then be fully realized and will cause rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Even when people must surrender things good in themselves, God works for a higher good, and the mysteries, unanswered prayers and disappointed hopes that trouble people now will in the future life be seen as blessings.

The heavenly Father is too wise to err and too good to do harm, even when His dealings seem dark, unexplainable and baffling and His ways are deeper than can be fathomed. Believers must not presumptuously try to comprehend how or why He works, nor occupy themselves with matters too high for them. The lesson is only believe, with simple, confiding, unreserved submission to His will and contentment that His word is right and all His works are done in truth, resting in faith and simple trust. When things do not come as desired and present circumstances look like a mistake, bring severe suffering and show no visible help, it is not always best to have one's own way. The promise therefore calls for stopping worry and complaint, praising God, letting the Lord work in His own way and by whom He will, giving Him room to work, and not blocking His way by trying to adjust everything to one's own ideas or take the work out of His hands.

God can overrule human mistakes for the good of His people and bring them blessings, even though He does not lead them to make those mistakes. This includes mistakes in the distribution of means and cuts in the wages of missionaries doing the work God appointed them to do, made by men who do not always have the mind of Christ. Even when for the present His servants are inconvenienced and greatly disappointed by being hemmed in on every side, the Lord Jesus, who has an interest in every phase of His work, will make these things result in good and work together for good for them. The Lord always knows how to overrule evil for good, and even when a move is not His plan but is permitted because men follow their own will and way, He can turn it to advance His cause, as in using a going from America to Australia to plant the standard of truth and build up a strong work there.

Good Accomplished in Believers

The good promised is conformity to the image of the Son, for those foreknown and predestined are also called and justified and glorified. Painful providences pass them through the furnace until the dross is consumed and they reflect the divine image, which is the pruning and purifying needed to fit sinners for heaven when the will is not yet subjected to Christ. What looks like failure may be triumph and what seems loss may be gain, yet those who follow inclination and judge by appearances misread this work and complain with Jacob that all things are against them when those very things are for their benefit. To contend with providence and live dissatisfied as if circumstances were arranged to tempt and destroy is dangerous. Even in sickness, suffering and weakness those who love God are in the Lord's hands, so instead of complaining they are to do duty where they are by resting in Him and looking to Jesus as spiritual efficiency, whose grace works within to perfect His image, develop His own Spirit, and increase capacity to work with Him.

Through patience, faith and hope in all the changing scenes of life, trials form character for everlasting life, so there is no need to fail or be discouraged by hardship. Heavy trials, opposition, bereavement, affliction, temptations, and dark terrible chapters opening where least expected to weigh down the soul all work together for good, and their advantage is not confined to this short life but reaches into eternal ages. The certainty rests on the bow of promise above the throne testifying that God will never forget His people in their struggle, and on the fact that Jesus Himself passed through all these sufferings.

Trials and tribulations are sent for good in order to give renewed strength and increased humility so that God can safely bless and support and uphold. Even in the darkest days when circumstances look forbidding He works out His will and does all things well, giving those who love and serve Him renewed strength day by day. No matter how dark and mysterious the ways of providence, however great the deprivation and suffering, everything works for good, for afflictions themselves are His workmen ordained for the perfection of character when the look is turned away from seen temporal things to the unseen and eternal.

His power in terrible conflict acts like a refining fire that consumes the dross in a person without consuming the person. The things complained of, including suffering and trials, are working for good as part of purifying and preparing for heaven even when it cannot be seen, so what looks like failure or loss may belong to that preparation. Painful trials prune and purify, strengthen faith, and prepare for heaven despite appearances.

Persecution, unjust reproach, trial and conflict can bring the faithful nearer to God, teach them their own weakness and His strength, and train them to rely on Him, and the experience gained through suffering prepares them to face emergencies, take positions of trust, and fulfill the purpose for which their abilities were given. He may allow even trusted people to fail so that reliance is learned toward God rather than human strength, and may make the schemes of wicked people work for good for those who remain faithful and loyal. Christ does not always permit His children to have their own way but permits trials so they may have fellowship with Him in His sufferings, and if yielded to Him those trials work out for good. Affliction in this way turns the heart from the world and its passing pleasures toward heaven's enduring attractions.

God leads through difficulty so that His children may become strong to serve in action and suffering, as later seen when discouragement and perplexity are understood to have led toward fulfilling His purpose. When a person seeks the Lord with humility and trust every trial works for good, so an apparent failure may be the way to true advancement, deeper self-knowledge and firmer trust in heaven, while mistakes teach not to repeat them, strengthen resistance to evil, and benefit others by example. All emergencies and every combination of difficulties that call to action and arouse seeking for help work together for good to those who love God and maintain integrity at all hazards. When emergencies force decision, acting unselfishly and bravely to resist the working of evil gives clearer self-knowledge and shows the necessity of standing steadfast to pure, unadulterated principles in order to save souls ready to perish, with the same sympathy Christ had when He rebuked wrong. Every trial works out for good to those who hold fast to Christ, for human need is His opportunity and strength is gained only by meeting obstacles and difficulties and overcoming them, and Christ endured manifold temptations as every human being must endure, believed God, learned obedience and overcame, so He knows how to help the tempted.

All sufferings and sorrows, temptations and trials, sadness and griefs, persecutions and privations, all experiences and circumstances are His workmen to bring good. Through them believers prove the Lord and find Him precious, grasp the blessings to be had in affliction, build character for time and eternity by faith in the Son of God, and receive happiness, joy, peace, brightness and comfort in present experience rather than waiting for heaven. Those who fail to grasp these blessings miss much, and murmurers and complainers lose comfort by not bearing all things patiently, looking at the light behind the cloud, and refusing to picture God as a hard master reaping where He has not sown and gathering where He has not strewed. Trying afflictions, painful wakeful nights, weakness and sickness will in the end bring good, and those who love God are given strength to hold fast without murmuring, to praise Him in suffering with joy and trust and confidence and increased consolation, and to be content either to live or to sleep in Jesus. To love Him in this way is to learn the sweetness of perfect trust in Him who gave His life, to belong to Jesus by creation and by redemption, to do all possible for God, and at last to lay the crown at His feet. For those called according to His purpose, even sorrow as shown in Bible biography carries a higher lesson, witnessing that God is good and that goodness is supreme.

Sufferings Turned to Benefit

All sufferings and sorrows, temptations and trials, sadness and griefs, persecutions and privations, with every experience and circumstance, are God's workmen to bring good to those who love Him, abide in Christ and belong to Him. Nothing touches them except by the Lord's permission, and however dark and mysterious the ways of providence, however great the deprivation and suffering, everything is assured to work for their good. Afflictions themselves are ordained for the perfection of character, so that by looking away from seen temporal things to the unseen and eternal, present trial is seen to work eternal good. Through them believers prove the Lord and find Him precious, grasp the blessings to be had in affliction, build character for time and eternity by faith, and receive present happiness, joy, peace, brightness, comfort and consolation rather than waiting for heaven. Those who fail to grasp these blessings miss much, and murmurers and complainers lose comfort by not bearing all things patiently, looking at the light behind the cloud, and refusing to picture God as a hard master reaping where He has not sown.

Bereavement, affliction, death, sickness, painful wakeful nights, weakness and great loss work together for good, for God knows what is best and does all things well. He does not willingly afflict and grieve His children, but sustains the bereaved under loss, bends over them in love in prostrate suffering, speaks in compassion, keeps His kindness and covenant of peace upon them, showers benefits and mercy, and gives strength and rest to the weary who stand fast in Him. Affliction is like a furnace in which He refines His people as gold, and even severe trials such as the painful death of wife, child, companion, or newborn child are sent for the good of those who suffer them, though the suffering feels severe and human beings cannot tell what outcome is best. The mysterious loss that takes away the light of the eyes can become the means of saving souls, with light coming out of incomprehensible darkness, and the hope includes future reunion when sorrow ends, whether content to live or to sleep in Jesus. Those who love God hold fast without murmuring or complaining and can praise Him in suffering with joy, trust, confidence and increased consolation, learning the sweetness of perfect trust in Him who gave His life.

Perplexities, annoyances, reproach, misrepresentation, being pursued and threatened, troubles, and the schemes of wicked people and enemies are among the things worked together for good for those who love God and remain faithful and loyal through trial and conflict. God sees both those who suffer and those who oppose them, and though He may not prevent those schemes, as shown in the histories of Joseph and Daniel, He turns their effects toward good. Persecution and unjust reproach can bring believers nearer to God, teach them their weakness and His strength, and train them to rely on Him. The experience gained through suffering prepares them to face emergencies, take on positions of trust, and fulfill the purpose for which God gave them their abilities, and those who remain courageous, trust Him, act justly and love mercy can rely on His sure promise.

Accidents and circumstances kept in God's own hand, with obstacles, mistakes, discouragement, apparent loss, failure and delays, are made to work together for good to those who love Him, and accepting them as such ends worry and anxious concern. This includes delay in deciding where to locate a school and delay in moving it from the city to a more suitable and favorable location. The assurance calls for steadfast heart service that stays true to principle under every circumstance, with every soul who does his best prized and rewarded, so that even when advancement seems impossible and the future cannot be seen clearly, the work can be carried on in faith and hope under discouragement and losses because it is the Lord's. When sought with humility and trust, every trial works for good: apparent failure may be God's way of bringing true advancement, deeper self-knowledge and firmer trust in heaven, while mistakes teach not to repeat them, strengthen resistance to evil, and benefit others by example.

Even in terrible conflict, when circumstances are dark and mysterious and unexplainable, when the path leads through deep waters and trial and bereavement come again and again, God works for the good of those who believe and love Him. His power acts like a refining fire that consumes the dross in a person without consuming the person. Things that appear to be against God's people will work for their good, and circumstances that cannot be prevented, even what appears to be a terrible calamity, may prove a blessing in the end. The command to give thanks in everything confirms this, for God would not ask thanks for what would harm. It is a precious promise to hold with courage while preparing to meet the soon-coming Lord, to see Him as He is and be made like Him, depending on God, trusting patiently, refusing complaint and doubt lest doubt become a habit destroying faith, and talking faith and courage.

Error and opposition work for good by calling God's servants to search Scripture and make the truth clearer and sharper, and even when the wicked prevail for a time and many things transpire that are productions of evil, all things still work for good to those who love God. Loving God is shown by keeping His commandments and doing His word and trusting fully in Him, and even persecution and the bitterest opposition for obeying God cannot defeat those who so trust and obey. Their sufferings, like those of the apostles, spread faith, win souls to Christ and glorify His holy name, and opposition does not shake the steadfast soul rooted to the eternal rock. Truth is effectual and will bear away the victory.

Particular Providences Recorded

Losing an engaged or rented meeting place through failure to secure a written contract is reckoned among the all things that work together for good to those who love God. The disappointment is sore and painful because believers had hoped to bring unbelieving relatives to hear, and they weep with sorrow over the loss. Even that grief of those who had invited others and then disappointed them is included in what God causes to result in benefit.

Great financial disappointment is likewise one of the all things that work for good to His servants. Hoping for much-needed help that proves to be a fraud and yields nothing still belongs to what God turns to good for those who love Him. Mistakes in the distribution of means, including cuts in the wages of missionaries doing the work God appointed them to do by men who do not always have the mind of Christ, will be made to result in good for them even when for the present they are inconvenienced, hemmed in on every side, and greatly disappointed.

Even a sad calamity like the burning of the sanitarium can work for good for those deeply affected by it. This is felt very deeply when life interests are bound up with the institution, and the good outcome is to be sought by prayer for them. Others are to be afflicted with them and to weep in sympathy with those who weep. Calamities are thus to be treated as disguised blessings and woes as mercies, with hope found in despair and with faith recognizing that God works through hardship and apparent failure for good as He works with His laborers.

God turns even angry opposition into good in unexpected ways. When a husband and father opposed to the truth refused his wife's earnest request to send their daughter to the school at Battle Creek, his fury on learning that the younger daughter had taken her stand with mother and sister on the Sabbath led him to order her out of the house at once, then to soften enough to provide suitable clothing for her, and this expulsion granted the mother's wish in a way she did not expect. The painful death of a dearly loved wife, child, or companion also works together for good to them that love God. God does not willingly afflict and grieve His children but knows what is best and does all things well, sustaining the bereaved under great loss, bending over them in love in prostrate suffering, speaking in compassion, keeping kindness and covenant of peace upon them, showering benefits and mercy, and giving strength and rest to the weary who stand fast in Him. The mysterious loss that takes away the light of the eyes can become the means of saving souls, with light coming out of incomprehensible darkness. Severe trials such as the death of a newborn child are sent for the good of those who suffer them even while the suffering feels severe, since human beings cannot tell what outcome is best and must let the Lord work out His plans in His own way. A trial can also work for good and for God's glory by leading to repentance and genuine conversion and by guiding the right decision about trusting again, as was hoped for Fannie.

Interruption of good work for others and imprisonment whose reason cannot now be seen and understood still turn out for the benefit of those who love God. God remains supreme, heaven rules, men are finite and God is infinite and works in a mysterious way, and He will not leave those who love Him in confusion even though He permits sin to develop into crimes and cruelties. He uses such hindrance to bring light before many who otherwise would never have received knowledge of it and to spread blessings to His scattered people. Even hostile opposition, false accusations, rival meetings, and efforts to provoke, hinder, and drive away workers are made to work for good when believers pray, trust God, leave themselves in His hands, and keep quietly on with preaching Christ instead of retaliating or vindicating themselves. Refusal to let believers use a church baptistry likewise was overruled for good when they found another place for baptism, where the occasion moved people to decide to follow Christ and twenty were baptized when only twelve had been expected.

Circumstances such as the arrival of Sister Hannaford as help and Sister Mason's inability to remain in her former position are seen as working together for good for those who love God and follow His purpose. God brings around results to suit His own purpose for the glory of His name in enterprises such as preparing the way for a church to be built, so that in the end those who trust Him will realize He had their good in view every moment, which calls for faith with hope in God alone when moving forward in His work. Even a move that is not His plan but is permitted because men follow their own will and way He can overrule for good to advance His cause, as in going from America to Australia to plant the standard of truth and build up a strong work there. Disappointment and mistaken expectation are still made to serve the good of God's people and His glory. For those who decide for truth and keep the Sabbath at great cost and in great need, God verifies His promises for His own name's glory when they do all they can, hoping and believing that He will pity and help them, and when they are united, counsel together, pray together, and live out their faith.

Trust and Obedient Response

Those who suffer are to keep courage, rest the soul upon God, and trust the heavenly Father as a child trusts a parent, acting fairly and loving kindness and so honoring God in the midst of trial. Perplexing annoyances, reproach, misrepresentation, being pursued, harmed and threatened are among the things made to result in benefit, for the Lord watches both the sufferer and those who oppose, and those who remain courageous, trusting, just and merciful can rely on the sure promise.

Trials must be borne well, patiently and without murmuring or complaining, looking at the light behind the cloud and refusing to picture God as a hard master reaping where He has not sown. Love, sympathy and unity help believers stand faithfully together through trials that come from outside. Rightly borne trials separate from love of the world and lead to more complete trust in God, while danger comes not from the opposition of the world but from friendship with the world, copying those who do not love God, and being deceived and overcome by Satan's temptations. Through afflictions rightly received believers prove the Lord and find Him precious, grasp the blessings to be had in affliction, build character for time and eternity, and receive present happiness, joy, peace, brightness, comfort and consolation, whereas those who fail to grasp these blessings miss much and murmurers and complainers lose comfort.

Believers are to depend on God and trust Him patiently, refusing complaint and doubt lest doubt become a habit that destroys faith, and talking faith and courage even when providence seems dark, mysterious and unexplainable, circumstances are hard, the path leads through deep waters, and trial and bereavement come again and again. Faith must pierce the gloom with the eye single and fixed heavenward, keeping the riches of Christ's grace and the lessons of His love before the mind, laying hold on the Father's promises, remembering His former dealings with them and with His servants, and trusting even unto death. Christian hope does not rest on joyous feelings but on the sure word of promise beholding God's glory beyond the shadows, and hard times, adversity, depression and a dark way only give opportunity to show sincerity of faith and love, since depression is no evidence that God has changed or forsaken.

Even what appears to be against God's people will work for their good, and the command to give thanks in everything confirms this, for God would not ask thanks for what would harm. Those who love God are given strength to hold fast without murmuring, to praise Him in suffering with joy, trust, confidence and increased consolation, and to be content either to live or to sleep in Jesus amid trying afflictions, painful wakeful nights, weakness and sickness. They do duty where they are by resting in Him and looking to Jesus as spiritual efficiency, whose grace works within to perfect His image and develop His Spirit, and even every deprivation, great loss and dark inscrutable providence is to be met with rejoicing as light compared with Paul's afflictions and with the eternal weight of glory awaiting the overcomer.

When things do not come as desired and look like a mistake with no visible help, worry and complaint are to stop, God is to be praised, and the soul is to rest in faith and simple trust, letting the Lord work in His own way and by whom He will, giving Him room and not blocking His way by adjusting everything to one's own ideas or taking the work out of His hands. Trials and disappointments accepted as coming from God prove great blessings, and the matter entrusted to Him is worked for good. Those who trust and walk by faith not sight with an eye single to His glory may pass through suffering, but He turns it to blessing and causes triumph at last, so they need never be discouraged. They can trust Him to direct the work even when events do not follow their plans, letting Him work through whom He chooses rather than controlling everything, and knowing that even hostile opposition, false accusations, rival meetings and efforts to provoke, hinder and drive them away are made to work for good when they pray, trust, leave themselves in His hands and quietly continue preaching Christ instead of retaliating. God has an object for good in what befalls His children even amid illness and trial, giving help in temptation and answer to every cry for help, and remaining concerned for those He made, so with childlike confidence a loved one's safety and future may be entrusted to Him.

Scriptural Context and Illustrations

The promise stands together with being saved by hope, hoping for what is not seen and waiting for it with patience. In human weakness and not knowing what to pray for, the Spirit helps infirmities and makes intercession with unutterable groanings according to the will of God. Jesus in human nature, with human bodily wants and weariness, was braced by prayer to the Father for duty and trial, and the great Physician is present to heal every malady. Because God is for His people none can be against them, and since He spared not His own Son but delivered Him up, He will with Him freely give all things. Neither death nor life nor angels nor powers nor things present or to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature can separate them from the love of God in Christ Jesus, so life's troubles can be brought to Christ who helps believers overcome through divine grace.

The good is connected with God's purpose to conform them to the image of His Son. Those whom God foreknew He also predestined to that conformity, and those predestined He also calls and justifies and glorifies.

The histories of Joseph and Daniel show how God causes the harmful plans of others to work for good for those who serve Him and preserve faith and loyalty through trial, even when He does not prevent the plans or the suffering. Calumny, false accusation, wicked revenge, and unjust imprisonment are turned into good, with Joseph's unjust imprisonment becoming part of the way God prepared him for an exalted position. Like Joseph, those who suffer false accusations and are brought low may remain faithful and untainted in character, and in God's own time He can raise them up, even higher than their former position after disgrace.

Trials permitted by God work for good by testing faith and revealing trust in God and obedience to His written Word, while God's grace and strength are displayed before heavenly beings and people and His name is magnified. God does not delight in sin; He forgives the repentant, keeps them under His care, and provides a way to withstand temptation and escape its snare. He permits Satan to test believers, but gives strength to resist temptation.

Those who follow inclination and judge by appearances misread what God is doing, seeing triumph as failure and gain as loss. Like Jacob complaining that all things are against him when those very things are for benefit, they contend with providence and live dissatisfied as if circumstances were specially arranged to tempt and destroy, which is dangerous. Affliction and death may have physical causes, yet the Father's overruling hand is to be recognized in events that specially affect His people. Some afflictions may be chastisement whose purpose is beyond human understanding, but God sees more than people can and will ultimately bring things right. Affliction or the loss of useful work may serve God's purpose, so that a Christian may sometimes serve the Master more through suffering than through active service.

The one who is constantly advancing in firm devotion to God's work and firm reliance on God, with a noble aim and an absorbing purpose, recognizes Infinite Love working above, beneath, and beyond to accomplish His good purpose. Such faith does not weaken and evil finds little foothold, while the indolent soul falls an easy prey to temptation. God's true servants work with determination that will not fail because the throne of grace is their constant dependence, so their enemies fail to draw them into their power. Every struggling cry and every effort against the adversary enters the ears of the God of Sabaoth, and He will send help every time it is needed and help over every temptation if called upon in faith. Even things that appear to be against a person are used for sanctification when that person trusts and loves Him, with trust like a child trusting earthly parents, making it safe to trust that He will uphold His own.