What’s Good For Me?

Romans 8:28-29

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[i] have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 

You have probably seen verse 28 posted in reels, printed on t-shirts, and plastered on fellowship hall walls. Verse 29 sometimes doesn’t get the same love. Please, before you tune out at the frustrating concepts of foreknowledge and predestination or rush to start an argument with your small group about free will, let’s sit in the beautiful promise of this verse and let it remind us of what verse 28 truly means. There are many things that cause us to struggle in this sport we love. It may be injury, time constraints, age, or just the regular daily athletic frustration of “why won’t my stupid body do what I want it to do.” I am often tempted to see these struggles as setbacks or bad times that I must wait through to get to the good. Praise God that good isn’t defined by our success in disc golf or any of our other endeavors. It is defined in us being like Jesus, and we who love Him can rejoice in our struggles knowing that we are profoundly known and deeply loved by God Almighty who continues daily to make us like His Son. He is not struggling in that work, nor is he ever set back. Even when all we see is frustration, He is still marching us forward in The Way.

Reflection Questions

1.      Can you think of a time where you struggled, but looking back God was using it to make you more like Jesus?

2.      How can you focus on seeing the next challenge as God loving you and moving you toward Christ instead of being frustrated?

Lord God, Father of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, please forgive us for the times where we have hated the way you were working for our good. Please turn our hearts toward you and fix our eyes upon your kingdom and your righteousness as we freely surrender everything else to you. Please bless us in our efforts on the course and off it, and please make us more like Jesus wherever we go. Amen.