February 28: God Works in All Things

Someone quoted Romans 8:28 at you once, and it felt like being told your pain didn’t matter.

This verse gets quoted a lot, sometimes carelessly. People use it to rush past grief. “It’ll all work out.” But read it closely. It doesn’t say all things are good. Drinking wasn’t good. The damage it did isn’t good. The verse says God works in all things for good, for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

That’s different. It means God is at work inside the mess, not that the mess was fine.

As February ends, Step Two is asking you one more time: do you believe a Power greater than yourself could restore you? Not just your sobriety, but your life. The years. The relationships. The things drinking took.

Romans 8:28 says yes, God can work even in that. Not by pretending it didn’t happen, but by bringing something good out of it that wouldn’t have existed otherwise.

People in recovery see this all the time. The man whose worst years became the story that helps someone else walk into their first meeting. The woman whose hard-won honesty made her marriage stronger than it was before. The family that learned to talk about real things for the first time. None of them would choose the drinking. But they’ve seen God bring good out of it.

You may not see any of that yet. That’s all right. The verse is a promise, not a timetable. It’s something to hold onto while you wait.

Tomorrow the steps turn toward Step Three, the decision to turn your will and your life over to God’s care. Step Two is what makes that decision possible. You can’t hand your life to Someone you don’t believe can do anything with it. But if He can work in all things, then even your life, mess and all, is safe in His hands.

One thing today

Write down one painful thing from your drinking years. Under it, write: “God can work even here.” Pray over it, and leave the timing to Him.

A prayer

God, I can’t see how any good could come from what I’ve done and lost. But I believe You work in all things. Work in mine. I’m getting ready to trust You with all of it.

Finish Step Two and look toward Step Three.

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