Seriously, Sis Podcast
Seriously, Sis is a real and raw conversation between two Christian women navigating life from different seasons—one single, one married with kids—but united in faith. We tackle everything from relationships and calling to doubt and discipleship, all with honesty, humor, and a heart for Jesus. This is the space where faith meets real life—no filters, just truth.
Seriously, Sis Podcast
Did The Bible Say That? - All Things Work Out for Good?
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“All things work together for good.”
It’s one of the most familiar verses in Scripture, but it’s often quoted without its full context. In this episode of Does The Bible Say That?, we examine Romans 8:28 and what the verse actually promises.
When the second half of the verse is overlooked, it can create confusion about God, suffering, and what it means to live according to His purposes.
We explore how this passage connects to sanctification, obedience, and the deeper hope found in the rest of Romans 8: that nothing can separate believers from the love of God.
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Hey, hey, it's Seriously Sis Podcast, and we're back to talk about things that the Bible does not say.
SPEAKER_00Yes. And to your point in the last video that we did, this one is actually in there, but the way that people use it taken out of context. So I just want to start by saying this one's in there. That last one was not.
SPEAKER_02But it's manipulated.
SPEAKER_00It is. And I know I said in the last one that the last one really gets on my nerves, but this one really gets on my nerves. Like I They all get on your nerves. They do, but this one, every time I hear it, it makes me cringe. And the reason why is because it makes me cringe from a spiritual standpoint, but it also makes me cringe from a grammatical standpoint because when they say it, it's just incorrect grammar. Like it's not a complete thought. And that sends me up the wall. So the scripture that we're talking about today is from Romans 8.28 that says, All things work together for the good of those who love him and who are called according to his purpose. That is the scripture that's in there. This is what people say. All things work together for the good. And then they stop. And then my blood pressure rises. Because the good of what? It's not a it's not a complete thought. A, and that sins me. But B, there's more to that scripture that says who those good things work together for that's very important because if you leave it out, you're not um telling people what the criteria is to be the recipient of said good things.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And and to be clear, I'm not saying that God is not just good to everyone. He is. His word says that he makes his son rise on the righteous and the unrighteous. So God is just good. But there are certain promises that are reserved specifically for those who follow him and who love him and obey him. And we're trying to take those promises and apply them to everyone. And that in and of itself is not so much the thing that bothers me. I mean, it bothers me, but the thing that bothers me even more than that is that if you don't give people the full context, you're giving them a license to walk through this life without the full knowledge of what God has said, which puts them in a very dangerous position.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00So I've talked a lot. What do you think about this?
SPEAKER_02Well, I think the most important thing is it says for the good of those who are called according to his purpose. So in order to understand that, you need to know what his purpose is and what is he trying to accomplish through you in this lifetime. And sometimes we we think that we're we're a little confused as to what that means. Like we're thinking, oh, okay, well, my life's just gonna be, I'm gonna be a millionaire. Listen, I'm gonna have all the monies and I'm just gonna be living it up, chilling, going on vacation everywhere. I'm gonna go to, you know, the UK, I'm gonna go to Australia, I'm gonna go everywhere, name it. And we think that we're we're missing that it's according to his purpose.
SPEAKER_01Right. Exactly.
SPEAKER_02So you miss that. How can you even know what the scripture is talking about at all?
SPEAKER_00Exactly. And and I think equally as important is the fact that he works everything to uh together for the good of those who love him. And Jesus gives us context as to who it is that loves him. He says, It is those who keep my commands who love me. And so if you go back to that scripture with that understanding that Jesus has laid it out there that those who love him keep his commands, and it's not a works thing, right? It's it's it's not, it's the same way that I am your friend, and therefore uh my natural inclination is to not do things to tick you off. Well, you know, it depends on the day, but it's the same thing, you know. When you really have a relationship with someone, you you want to do the things that please them, not the things that go against everything that they stand for. So it's not a works thing. Um, but the word does say that those who love him will keep his commands. So with that under being understood, all things work together for the good of those who love God by keeping his commands. I'm adding that because we've defined it, and who are called and walk according to his purpose, to your point. So that's the full context. You love God, you're you're doing your heart's desire is to follow his command, and you want to do this life his way, according to his purpose for his agenda. That's the criteria, criteria for who all things work together for the good for. That's important because if you don't find yourself in that category, then you can't claim that. And it's not that I don't want people to not be able to claim it. What I'm concerned for, and really do hear my heart in this, it really is a concern, is that if you think that God is just going to bless everything that you do, there's never a reason for you to go through sanctification and transformation and to achieve access to the freedom that God has promised.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00And you do yourself a disservice and you walk through this life in this delusion that you are in right standing with God when you're not. And that's scary. That's why this bothers me the way that it does, because we're basically just saying everything's gonna work out great. Keep on sinning, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Keep on doing the dumb thing. Yeah, keep on doing that. It'll be fine, you know. Keep on having premarital sex, keep on, you know, doing those kind of things. It'll be all right.
SPEAKER_00It's gonna work out, God's gonna work it out for good. And there are consequences to your actions. Absolutely. And we are painting this picture of God that is not God at all, A, which is blasphemous in nature, firstly. But we're telling people that God doesn't care. Do what you want to do, He's gonna work everything out for good for you, and that puts them in a uh place of delusion, but it also creates an unrealistic expectation that everything is gonna be good, like we talked about in the last one.
SPEAKER_02I think there's a theme here that every scripture we've talked about, it's someone manipulating something to benefit themselves.
SPEAKER_01Right, right.
SPEAKER_02Well, I'm a Christian, so let me this benefits me. Me, me, I, I. Um, and that's just not the case. There are, I don't say guidelines because that just sounds very, very um organizational. But if you love God, you will follow his commands when you have that relationship. You'll want to do that. Um it makes me think uh the Bible says that um what is it? It's the something about the the Lord the man the Lord orders your steps, okay? A man follows his heart, but the Lord orders his steps.
SPEAKER_00A man makes his plans, but the Lord orders his footsteps. Correct.
SPEAKER_02Yes. So um, you know, he gives you desires, and there are things in your heart, you know, that you have, but the Lord orders your footsteps. And I think that's exactly what the scripture's talking about. Like it's according to his plan. When I'm following where God's putting me to go, when he gives me direction and I'm following that, I see a lot of favor. I really do. When I push against it, it's like Jonah in the well. Nobody wants to be there. He didn't want to go to Nineveh. But he went.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02Right? He he gave pushback, and of course, you know what's getting swallowed and put in a well, and you know, nowadays. Maybe it'd be kind of interesting as long as it's not me.
SPEAKER_00It would be you.
SPEAKER_02I don't want it to be me. It would be you just because he said I hate fish. The smell alone would just kill me.
SPEAKER_00Now we know it's gonna be you.
SPEAKER_02But you know, the the Lord order your footsteps. So um I I just think that yes, God wants you to prosper and he wants you to have a great life. He really does. Um, but you are called according to his purpose. That's what we're called for. Right. Um and we're, you know, called to go and bear good fruit.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02So we can't be out in the club on Saturday on the stage on Sunday, you know, and expect that we're bearing good fruit. Right. Because that just it just doesn't work like that. You have to be consistent, um, and you have to die to yourself. So I mean, at the end of the day, it it's hard. Yeah, but I promise you it's better.
SPEAKER_00Right. And and you know, when you were talking, I was thinking about um the apostles. Very clear that they were called according to God's purpose, right? Because all uh much of the text that we read today was in the New Testament was written by them, right? All of them but one were martyred. In a fleshly sense, does that look like it was good? I mean, don't get me wrong. Crucified upside down, crucified upside down, tortured, you know, just all of the things that you wouldn't want to happen. You would not want to happen, but we know for a fact that they were called according to God's purpose.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00So where is the good in that? Well, for them in particular, the good in that was for us, right? Because we glean from um the letters that they wrote and and and the um the gospels that they wrote that introduce us to Jesus uh from their perspective. But I think the answer is found in the rest of that scripture that we don't read. So Romans 8, 28. If you keep reading, you get to the very well-known passage about nothing being able to separate us from the love of God. This thing, this the scripture that says all things work together for the good of those who love him and who are called according to his purpose comes a few verses before that. And in that section, it's talking about, you know, the things that you will go through in this life, but he ends it by saying, But I am convinced that neither death nor life nor principalities above or all of these things will be able to separate us from the love of God. That is the good thing. And what does he mean by that? Eternity. We're gonna go through bad things in this life, it's just gonna happen. All of the apostles, with the exception of one, and I mean all of them went through bad things, but all of them with the exception of catastrophic things, you know, lost their life.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, however, their reward in heaven is sealed for eternity for what they did. And we think about death in a in a very um today sense of the word, right? Like we think about death like I take my last breath, I've died. But the way that the Bible defines death is separation from God. That's why in Genesis, when when God said, When you eat of this fruit, you will surely die, that happened. Because when they did that, they were immediately separated from the presence of God. So they did die. Their physical body might not have died, but spiritually, they were dead until a savior came. So with this scripture, all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose. And then you read the rest of that that says that nothing will separate us from God. It's talking about eternity. There are two deaths. There's the death in this life, and then there's the second death. The Bible refers to judgment and hell as the second death. That for the believer, we will never experience. We will never be separated from God. All these things that we're going through in life, all these things that we're going through, to put it like they do in church, on this side of heaven, is positioning us for our eternal reward to always be uh connected to God. That is the good that comes out of this walk. It's not that, to your point, it's not that, okay, I'm gonna be rich or you know, I'm gonna get that dream job or you know, whatever, I'm gonna travel the world. That I mean, God does do those things, don't get me wrong. He definitely blesses us. But the real good reward is Him, is His presence, is eternity with Him.
SPEAKER_02It's such a hard, I think, um, concept for people to wrap their minds around, though. I think in general, we live moment to moment, day to day. It's really hard to wrap your mind around. Like when someone dies, I was thinking about this the other day. When someone dies, for us, it's they're gone.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_02I am broken, they're gone, I miss them, I I want to be around them, I miss them. But that God can see the bigger picture.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02Um, and I think about like when, you know, maybe someone you pray for someone to come back and they don't come back, God can see the bigger picture and we can't, we can only see it as it is in that moment. So I think sometimes we it's hard for us to really understand um what it looks like to be fully with the Father, right? And um I'm I was thinking about how you were talking about uh them being martyred and all those things that happened. And we think we have it so bad, like all the time. I just think about how bad we think we have it, like we're not being persecuted like that for our faith, right? Um and yet sometimes we treat it like it's more of a chore to do. It's like I gotta go and carve out time, like it's it's a chore for me to spend time with the Lord rather than us having that relationship. Um my voice is just going crazy, guys. But um I don't know, I I think that we could probably hound this scripture all day, but I think some of your points you made are are really impactful and important. It's important that people know that um he doesn't just work everything for the good. Yeah. And we can't just stay there.
SPEAKER_00Right. And you know, having an accurate view, and when I say accurate, I mean I'm ever learning. Like the Lord is always revealing things, and that will continue until he comes back and all things are revealed, right?
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Um, but having an ever-increasing understanding of the word is important because then it it allows you to put your hope in the right thing.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00You know, you you said um it's hard for us to wrap our minds around eternity, and that is true. It is very hard for us to wrap our minds around eternity. But I I will say for myself that when I'm going through something hard, oftentimes, even in the midst of it being hard, and I'm not, I you know me, I'm never sugarcoating when something is difficult. Um, but even in the midst of that, I look at that and think, okay, but this is not forever. Like it feels difficult. It is difficult what I'm going through right now, but it's not forever because I have this hope that all of this is going to work together for my good at some point, even if it's not good right now. And if you don't have that understanding, then you don't have that to cling to.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00You don't have that to hold on to when you're going through something difficult. I know my Jesus is coming back for me. I know that. And I joke all the time and say, I'm gonna meet him in the sky because it's ghetto down here. And as much as I would love for that to happen, the the foundation of that is just me really understanding that the Lord loves me and He's coming back to get me. And when that happens, all of this other stuff won't mean anything anymore. Right. All of all of the bad stuff will have been well worth it because now I'm in the presence of my father. And I can tell myself that because I know it in the word. But how do you encourage yourself that way if you don't know it?
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00If you have an unrealistic expectation, but it also keeps me from being angry with God uh in in an unjust way. Because if you read this and and think that all things are supposed to be good and then all things aren't good, then you turn and look at God and say, I thought you were good.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but then also if you're always saying saying that, then it's harder for you to get people to God because they'll be like, Why would I want that? Your life's a disaster. Exactly. It's a dumpster fire emoji. Ain't nothing I want. Yeah, I don't want if that's what uh Jesus is like, no, thank you.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. But when we can effectively communicate what that scripture is saying, it helps us and it gives another person the ability to truly decipher whether they think this is for them or not. Because people make decisions about whether they want to follow God based upon things that are not in the Bible every day, every day.
SPEAKER_02And they also make decisions about if they want to follow God based off of people who are not God, right? Right. And they've all sinned and fallen short. But sometimes we, well, I'm putting my faith based off of what how this person's behaving. It's crazy.
SPEAKER_00Right. Exactly. So being able to answer that person who's like, why would I serve a God is is that it's that classic question that people ask. If God is so good, why do bad things happen? A lot of times Christians get trumped by that question, but it's really a simple question.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00The question is because we live in a fallen world because we chose to disobey God and abdicate our position to Satan. That is why bad things happen in this world, not because of God, because of us. When we are able to answer questions that way, then at least people have the truth of the situation to then determine whether they're going to follow God or not. But when the Christians can't explain why they believe what they believe, or they can't um they can't defend their faith, there's no hope for those around us if we don't have an understanding of the word. We need to be ever increasing in spiritual maturity, ever increasing in biblical literacy, um, and not just be comfortable with just doing church all the time.
SPEAKER_02Right. I think that we have a lot of people out there that are a bad example of what it means to be a Christian. And to your point, if someone who knows the Bible more than you that isn't a Christian, they can speak to it better than you can, that's a big problem. That's a big problem. I know when I went to um Bible school and we were going through and we were talking about the Bible, and someone said this quote, and it's always stuck with me. If you don't believe the word of God, your faith is in trouble. Like I often see Christians that pick out certain scriptures that they they say are correct, but then they'll say, Oh, well, didn't you know that there were other books of the Bible that weren't added? You know that they took them out. Why would I believe something that man wrote? God didn't write this, man wrote this. If you don't believe the word of God, your faith is in trouble. And it really resonated with me because I was like, you know, you're you're absolutely right.
SPEAKER_00You you are. And I think about, you know, like I've seen I've been in churches where this scripture, they've given half of it, and I've seen people receive it with joy. It's a very, very easy thing to receive, right? All things work together for your goods.
SPEAKER_02I mean, there's songs about it. Right.
SPEAKER_00Very easy to receive. And then I've I've seen those same same people go through a hardship and then question God because they thought that they weren't supposed to go through anything bad or it was supposed to turn out a certain way. And that's because they were given an incomplete word. And so this is why this is so important is that you don't know whose walk you're impacting, for the good or for the bad, based upon how you uh represent God, how you are um delivering scripture, how you're giving his word. Please don't give me no interpretation, just tell me what it says. I don't need your interpretation, I need what God said, because that's what's gonna help me navigate the situation.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00You know, it it it might not, it might feel better to say um this that you're going through is gonna work out in your favor in a month. That might feel better. But if the reality is, is that I'm gonna walk through this for the next three years and and I might not see it on the other side. But when I get to heaven, then that person that I've been praying for is gonna be there because I went through that. I can. I can handle that because you gave me the truth. Like I can handle that versus you giving me something that's a lie. And then six months down the road, I realize, oh, okay, that was not a real word. And now my faith is in shambles.
SPEAKER_02Well, and that's another reason why it's so important that we're aware of false prophets and what people are saying to us and being able to decipher that. I think that um I can't think of a situation where that I've gone through that I can't look from out of the valley on top of the mountain that I can see God's hand in it the entirety of the time. Even situations because I was an idiot. I just want to be honest. Situations where, you know, you made your bed now, you have to lie in it. Have you ever heard that saying? I've made my bed many a times and the Lord brought me out of that bed. You know, the Lord brought me through things that I didn't deserve to like the the grace that he offered me in situations. I think that's the thing. We put ourselves in these stupid situations sometimes and we're like blaming God. I'm quite aware when I'm an idiot. Like I'm quite aware when I'm doing something that I shouldn't be doing and doing something against the word because I know the word.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_02And so I'm aware when I'm doing something I'm not supposed to be doing or walking away I shouldn't be walking. And there's been many instances in life where I can look back and I can see God's hand in it, completely in it. And he worked things out for my good, according to his purpose, really in my life. And there are so many things that I can point back to that I are a testimony to other people that I can sit and I can sit with people who are going through those situations and I can say, Hey, um, I want to tell you not to give up. Let me tell you what God did for me.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02We have to be very careful with the people who are speaking into our lives. And if you don't know your Bible, you're gonna find yourself in such bad situations. You know how many times someone's prophesied over me, and I immediately I was like, that's not my God. Show me in scripture where it says that. Let's let let's make all the breadcrumbs add up. Like it doesn't, it doesn't work if you're not gonna put the time in and you're not gonna get to know the Lord through scripture. I think it's important you know both the scripture and then know the relationship with him now. You should have both. There's been so many times that I'm like, nah, that does not add up. You God told you what? He didn't tell me. I wish he would have sent me a telegram or something. Like, not a telegram. Where did that come from? Like, send me an email, text message something. But I just can't. You can't just just take a word of knowledge from anyone. We go, like, we see people that go to huge churches, mega churches, or their conferences, and they're what they want is they want to hear from the Lord. Right. And they're hoping, oh, well, maybe I'll get called for an altar call. Maybe something will happen, and someone will, the Lord will speak to me. You don't need to be on an altar call for the Lord to speak to you.
SPEAKER_00I already did. He wrote you a book. Just hurry down. He wrote you a book. Like, and don't get me wrong, I I fully believe in the gifts. I fully believe in prophecy. But the word says that all things will pass away, but not one pen stroke from his word is going to pass away. So if you're receiving a prophetic word, you better know what the Bible says to be able to test, like you said, if that prophetic word is true. The Bible says that the Bible is good for instruction, it is good for edification. It's also what we use to test by. It is constant. And we're we are instructed to test every spirit, test everything. And if it doesn't line up with the Bible, which is your barometer, if this is what you're measuring it against, then you need to discard it. But how can you do that if you don't know the word?
SPEAKER_02You can't you rely on other people to do it for you.
SPEAKER_00Right. And then you're relying on them to know what they're talking about. And and I, you know, and I want to be clear, you brought up big churches and mega churches and prophetic conferences and all those things, and I agree with you. We are always chasing a word. And again, I have received words in my life that were 100% spot on. So this is not me being against prophecy. Um, but I've also heard some interesting things in my day. And um, if I didn't know the word, I might have run with that immediately. Um, and it would have caused me great harm. But because I knew the word, I was able to be like, nah. No, that's not it. And you want to be able to protect yourself like that. You know, God gave us this word because he loves us, he wants to protect us. And there is um, what is it that it uh that it says is my people perish for lack of knowledge, lack of knowledge of his word. Get it in there. You cannot test any of these things um without it. And don't this is kind of not what we were talking about, but like don't be just chasing a word from anyone. Chase God.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And if you need a word from God, we all need a word from God. If you need a word from God, go to the book, the love letter that he wrote you. It's in there.
SPEAKER_02Now, I don't suggest doing the whole where you flip the page and then you just put your finger down and you're like, This is my scripture for the day.
SPEAKER_00I've seen that work too. I've seen it work, I've seen it work.
SPEAKER_02Jesus wept.
SPEAKER_00Well, but my thing is the more familiar you get with the Bible, the more that you can go to it in specific seasons. Right. If you are if you're down and you need encouragement, go to the book of Psalms. If you need uh to know about your identity, go to the book of Ephesians. If you need to know what Jesus did for you, go to all of the gospels. If you like, if you have questions about creation, go to Genesis. Like you don't know how to do that though until you get into your Bible. And you just have to sit down and open it and read it. That's the only way that it happens. I I think people are waiting for some like some magical like explanation of how you learn to hear the voice of God or how you become biblically literate. It's because you sit down and you read your Bible and you do that over and over and over again. It's really no magical thing that happens. I'm not saying that the that God can't send an angel and and give you a revelation because his word has shown that he does that, but that's not necessarily necessary. All you have to do is sit down and read it.
SPEAKER_02That should not be what you're you're waiting for. Right. In order to have that relationship. You shouldn't be sitting waiting for someone to prophesy.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02For you to hear from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00Or prophyli.
SPEAKER_02I love that. Prophili. You shouldn't be, you shouldn't be waiting for um that shouldn't be your measure of the Lord speaking to you.
SPEAKER_00And isn't it cooler for God to speak to you directly? Right? We always want a middleman. We always want that. We have one. His name is Jesus, he's interceding for us continuously. God speaking to you is going to be way cooler than any other person doing it. I guarantee it.
SPEAKER_02I love when people are like, How did you know the Lord spoke to you? Oh, you'll know. You'll know. And I think it's really funny when um you know, but then you try to go and find out to make sure. Let's make sure over here. Like, I don't know. Maybe that maybe that wasn't God. Maybe that just wasn't it.
SPEAKER_00Maybe you just don't want to do what he said to do.
SPEAKER_02What is it? I I don't remember who told me this. It was like, Lord, if I'm not supposed to be with this guy, I need you to strike lightning now. Lightning strikes. All right, Lord. Well, if you don't want me to be with him, I need to just strike three times. Lightning strikes three times, and they're like, this can't be it.
SPEAKER_00You know, you just don't want it to be it.
SPEAKER_02Just an analogy. But I've seen the Lord. God, if you if you tell me if this isn't for me, you know, I need you to, I need you to step in. I need you to you take it from me. I've said that before. Lord, if you if this is not for me, I have a feeling this isn't for me. It's just something here. I need you to show me it's not for me. And then when he straight showed me it wasn't for me, I was like, so mad. Why?
SPEAKER_00We want it to be for us, and he's like, Why, Lord? Why? But but he will, he will respond. Yeah. Um, very quick. There was um a time that my sister was talking to um this guy. Sorry to put your business out there. She was talking to this guy, and um and I just wasn't really feeling it. So I prayed and I was just like, Lord, if this is not for her, I just pray that you make that clear. And I kid you not, that afternoon, she texts me and was like, So we're done talking to him. It don't take long. I'm just saying, when God speaks, you know. And if you don't know, go back to your Bible because that is how you measure whether or not um it's his voice or not. So, anyway, this is why this series I think is important because at the core or at our the core of our hearts, what we want is for anyone who's listening to understand that God's word is enough and it's sufficient, but you need it in its entirety.
SPEAKER_02And you cannot manipulate it. You can't manipulate it because it it makes you a false witness. We don't want that. So we gotta make sure that we're giving the full word when we're giving it to people.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I'm gonna get off of that one before I make the Christians mad at me.
SPEAKER_02It's inevitable.
SPEAKER_00It is.
SPEAKER_02All right, until next time. Bye.