Once in a while, I’ll catch myself playing Biblical algebra. By rearranging or removing certain words from our favorite verses, you start to notice how important each word ends up being. “God works things together for good” isn’t nearly as powerful without the “all”. Surely as Christians, we know better than to play word games with the Bible. Right?

We may not do it when we read the Word, but we can’t deny doing it when we try to live it out (sometimes we delete entire verses in real life). But let’s apply this to old faithful: Romans 8:28. When we worry about something not working out, isn’t that deleting “all” from the verse? Maybe we prefer to delete “good”? God works all things together, but they not be for good? These are too obvious. Surely, we know better than this. How about “know”? Do we “know” God works all things together for good? Or do we hope? Or think? Or do we add words like “might”?

Once we nail down every single word and start applying them all in our daily lives, it can change us in a big way. What if you really knew that no matter what you were facing today, God was going to work it together for good to those who love Him? What would you worry about? What would you be afraid of? What type of peace would you experience? How much would joy would you have?

What if the very thing you hated today became the thing God used to prove this verse to you in the future? Would you still hate it? Or would you thank Him for it?

I’ve never really asked myself these questions. But I have started to notice lately that God has been answering them anyway.