By Scott Guffin
Associate Professor and Executive Director of Christian Ministry, Samford University
GOD SPEAKS THROUGH CIRCUMSTANCES
Romans 8:26–35
As a young pastor in my 20s, I faced a dilemma: I had been accepted into the doctoral program at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary — which would require me to move my family to Louisville, Kentucky — and I also had a large, local church in our area offering me a staff position that would provide well for my family.
On a Sunday afternoon during all this, I was on my way to a meeting and was stopped by a train. I started counting the cars of the unusually long train, and somewhere around car 20, I noted that every car had the word “SOUTHERN” emblazoned on its side. I laughingly thought, “Is this God’s way of telling me something?”
I’ll have to ask God about that one when I get to heaven, but it was too coincidental and unclear at the time to say definitively that God was relaying His will through 140-plus train cars. God does, however, use various circumstances at times to communicate to us, as noted in Scripture.
It is up to us to ensure that we are listening carefully and discerningly as He does.
The Holy Spirit helps us pray and navigate our circumstances. (26–27)
Thankfully, we are not alone in this endeavor. Paul writes that the Holy Spirit Himself intercedes on our behalf, helping us in our weakness.
Particularly, He helps us when we don’t know what to pray for and addresses the Father on our behalf with “inexpressible groanings.”
Such a truth is especially helpful as we seek to understand, analyze and walk in obedience to God through the things we face in this life.
God uses our circumstances to accomplish His will and make us more like Christ. (28–30)
Ultimately, the best thing we can know and comprehend about our life circumstances is that God is working out His will in us even when we don’t see it or understand it.
We confess that we live in a fallen and broken world where people make bad — sometimes evil — decisions and where terrible things occur.
In such a context, it is all the more necessary for us to lean on God and to view everything that happens to us and around us through the lens of His revealed desire to make us more like Christ. While we may struggle at times to understand His will, it is vital for us to trust it.
We can trust God to work for our benefit. (31–35)
Years ago, a cousin of mine passed away after more than a decade of struggling with cancer. Her life served as a testimony to many, however. With each new round of bad news, she would respond with, “I’ll just have to Romans 8:28 that.”
Her meaning was clear: While she couldn’t explain the “why” of her sufferings, she could point to the “Who” that she trusted to work everything out for her good and His glory. She knew that there was nothing in all creation, including cancer, that could separate her from His love for her.
Her life and words expressed the sentiments of Paul in verse 18 — “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.”
As we face various circumstances in this life — both positive and negative — to whose voice will we listen? Whose heart will we trust?
Let us rest in Paul’s declaration in verse 37 that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”
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