A parable is told of a farmer who owned an old mule.  One day the mule fell into the farmer’s well.  The farmer heard the mule “braying” or whatever it is that mules do when they fall into wells.  After carefully considering the situation, the farmer although he sympathized with the mule, decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth the trouble of saving.  Instead, he called his neighbors together and told them what had happened and enlisted them to help haul dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put him out of his misery.

Initially, the old mule was hysterical!  “What are you doing to me?  You are going to just bury me alive. I have been a great mule all of my life and served you as best a mule can.  And this is the thanks I get!”  The mule was not big on the farmer’s plan, until it dawned on him that every time a shovel of dirt landed on his back, he should shake it off and step up.  This he did blow after blow.  “Shake it off and step up... Shake it off and step up... Shake it off and step up”... became his litany.  Over and over he repeated it until battered and exhausted he triumphantly stepped over the wall and out of the well.  What should have buried him, actually blessed him. Shake it off and step up is a tremendous philosophy.  And it is taught in no better place than Romans 8:28. 

Romans 8:28  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Divorced from its context, the verse is a powerful statement of faith for the people of God.  But, read in the context of the entire chapter 8 and the flow of the letter to the Romans, it becomes even more meaningful and becomes the kind of concept that can change the way you live your everyday life.  Notice particularly, the flow in verses 26-30.  These verses should always be kept together.  The NIV does a disservice by putting a section heading between verses 27 + 28. If you separate these verses you miss the main point.  You end up with separate disjointed concepts and you miss the big picture.  Listen to the five verses together and see how they flow.

Romans 8:26-30 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

For the last several weeks we have been discussing the role of the Spirit in the life of a Christian.  We have discovered the Spirit dwells within us and allows us to live at the intersection of the two realms.  Because of the Spirit there is this two-way connection between our hearts and God’s heart.  The Spirit knows our hearts and takes the emotional content of our prayers and reshapes those prayers to make them heaven-worthy.  He connects our prayers to the heart of God and then brings the will of God from heaven to our world.  Christian prayer is connecting across the realms to bring the power of God into our world.  That is the point of verses 26 and 27. 

Now when we add 28-30 in becomes amazing. As our prayers are taken by the Spirit to the throne of heaven and then that power comes back to our side it changes us.  Suddenly all things work together for good in our lives.  WOW! It is in answer to our prayers, which have been connected by the Spirit, that we have the guarantee that all things will work for good in our lives. But the question we need to wrestle with is what does good mean?  All the things of this world work to our good? How do you mean good? That hardly seems the case.
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It seems our world is coming apart.  Terrorists and hurricanes and credit card bills and cars that breakdown and families that breakdown and jobs that are just no longer any fun and world hunger and homelessness and evil people in charge and on and on and on and on; it certainly seems it  is out of control.  How can anyone claim that God is in control?  If he is, he certainly is not doing to whiz-bang job.  If he really cares about humans, how could he possibly allow so much suffering? 

It would seem that if you stacked up all the suffering that is going on in the world right now, that it would overwhelm God.  How can he stand to know every single hurt, every single worry, every single broken heart, all the hate, all the abuse?  How can he stand by and watch as a child is sexually abused and not step in?

But our verses tell us God is really in control.  He works together with all the things that happen, to make us better. The Greek pavnta means everything, all things.  Now stop and think about this for a moment.  God is going to take everything that happens and work it to our good.  All the suffering in the world is not pointless.  It is designed to work to our good.

Does that mean God causes everything?  No.  There is evil in the world and God is not evil, nor does he do anything evil. But God can use evil.  There are consequences to things we do that are stupid in the world.  Some people choose to ignore my advice, “If it’s stupid, don’t do it.” Then there will be consequences that are often hard.  But God can use these consequences for our good.  Sometimes things just happen.  Disease, or accidents or things are going to happen because of the way the world has to work.  God is not going to suspend the laws of nature when we go around a corner too fast and lose control of our car.   But, God can use them for our good. 

The word work here is not the typical word for work, but rather, it is a combination of the word work and the word with.  It is to work together with, to cooperate.  God is cooperating with all the events in our lives to make them good for us.  But we still don’t know what good means?
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So let’s go back and look at verse 29 to answer our question.

Romans 8:28-30 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.

Some have taken verse 28 out of it’s context and used it to teach that if you really, really are called to his purpose everything is going to be great in your life.  Bad things don’t really happen to those who love the Lord.  They preach a gospel of earthly prosperity.  “Serve God and give to my television ministry and God will give in return shaken down and running over.”  But that is not what this verse is talking about.

The good God is working in us is defined in verse 29 as being conformed into the likeness of his Son.  We, through the things that happen to us, are being made into the likeness of Jesus Christ.  That is what good means!  It is good that God uses the things of this world to mold us to look like his son. Suddenly the whole paragraph makes sense.  The Spirit takes our heart felt prayers before the throne of God. God takes the essence of those prayers and turns it into power in our world; power to change things.  First, that power changes us.  Working along with the events in our lives God changes us to be ever more like his son and that is Good!

It is like restoring a car.  This could really be a great illustration.  Some of you may have noticed a junky looking car or two around my house.  Most of you haven’t I’m sure, but a few of you may have.  Well, if you look at one of those trashy looking cars, you could have one of two responses.  One, you could say that it is a trashy looking car why in the world did Tim buy that.  Or, you could look at the car and see what it might become.  You could see in that pile of rust and dents, a gorgeous 57 Chevy with tuck and roll leather interior where there was a rat’s nest.  You could see a shiny chrome-covered 350 small block where there is a hole.  You could see a gorgeous paint job that just dazzles you when sunlight strikes it. 

When God looks into our beat-up lives, he doesn’t see a worthless pile of junk that ought to be hauled to the car crusher, he sees the perfect model.  He sees Jesus in us.  Yes, it’s going to hurt to get us there, but it is going to be worth it! 

If a car could feel, what would it say when you began the restoration process?  “Why are you ripping out all of my interior, I know it’s not much but it’s all I have.  Why are you taking off my bumpers, they are a little dull but they are better than nothing. Ouch, ouch, why are you beating on my fender?  That hurts.  Why are you taking me all apart and scrapping and sanding and hurting me?”  Do we say the same things as God rips the old sinfulness out of us?  Do we whine when God strips us of our pride?  Do we complain when he reshapes our heart?  In order to be conformed to be like Christ we have to suffer.  Remodeling is a painful process. But the ultimate results are good.  And that is how we are to understand verse 28. When we connect our hearts in prayer God answers by working with all the things of our lives to remodel us into images of Jesus and that is good!
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So, what difference does that make in my life?  How does it change the way I live? Let’s go back to our verses one more time.

Romans 8:26-30 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

You are a part of a plan; a plan that has been in place since the beginning; a plan to reinstate man to his rightful place; a plan to bring man back in unity with God; a plan to bring man back to glory. God knows who you are and what you are capable of becoming.  He sees you already like you are going to be in eternity.  He knows you are going to have suffer on this side of eternity and there is stuff that is going to happen in your life that is not going to be any fun at all.  But he is going to be there in the Spirit with you throughout the process as the stuff shapes you to be more and more like his son.  The plan is at work in your life.  If you know this, it completely changes how you view problems and heart-aches.  You know that you are going through a time of restoring.
 
Isn’t that exciting?  To know that God cares enough about you to keep on working in your life to bring you to glory! Glory then is not merely the compensation for suffering; it actually is an outgrowth of suffering.  Our glory is directly died to our suffering!  Our glory is to be made like Jesus and that is the plan that God has for your life.  A specific plan that if you could see the results of what you are really ultimately going to be like, you couldn’t wait to be that person!

Let me end by reading a story from "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life" by Donald Whitney. 

Imagine six-year-old Kevin, whose parents have enrolled him in music lessons.  After school every afternoon, he sits in the living room and reluctantly strums “Home on the Range” while watching his buddies play baseball in the park across the street.  That’s discipline without direction.  It’s drudgery.

Now suppose Kevin is visited by an angel one afternoon during guitar practice.  In a vision he’s taken to Carnegie Hall.  He’s shown a guitar virtuoso giving a concert.  Usually bored by classical music, Kevin is astonished by what he sees and hears.  The musician’s fingers dance excitedly on the strings with fluidity and grace.  Kevin thinks of how stupid and klunky his hands feel when they halt and stumble over the chords.  The virtuoso blends the clean, soaring notes into a musical aroma that wafts from his guitar.  Kevin remembers the toneless, irritating discord of “Home on the Range” as it stumbles from his guitar.

But Kevin is enchanted. His head tilts slightly to one side as he listens.  He drinks in everything.  He never imagined that anyone could play the guitar like this. “What do you think, Kevin?” asks the angel. There is a soft, slow, six-year-old’s “W-o-w!”

The vision vanishes and the angel is again standing in front of Kevin in his living room.  “Kevin,” says the angel, “the wonderful musician you saw is you in a few years.”  Then pointing at the guitar the angel declares, “But you must practice for that performance.”

What effect do you think Kevin’s vision of himself will have on his practice?  It will no longer be drudgery it will have purpose because he knows what he is to become.  It is the same in your life.  You know that you are going to be glorified to become like Jesus.  You are going to be a virtuoso Christian who fulfills the plan God has for your life.  But now you have to undergo the shaping the remodeling, the restoring so that you can be glorified! All the things that happen in your life bring you one step closer up to being the glorified person that God has planned for you.  So, shake it off and step up.  Shake it off and step up. Live worthy because glory is waiting!