“Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered…And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:26, 28).
Life has both its certainties and uncertainties.
History teaches that in less than a decade after receiving Paul’s letter, the church in Rome was going to experience several years of severe and brutal persecution by the Emperor, Nero. Tribulation, distress, persecution, deprivation, peril, and sword would be unleashed upon God’s family. Paul himself would ultimately be arrested and beheaded by this wicked, ruthless tyrant.
Under such trials, life can become so overwhelming that we are driven to the throne of God in such weakness that “we do not know what we should pray for as we ought.”
Yet, even when life is most uncertain, there are certain certainties: “we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
God’s sovereignty continues—“the Most High rules in the kingdoms of men” (Daniel 4:32); Christ remains “the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords” (1 Timothy 6:15). God’s providence which wove the scarlet thread of redemption into the fabric of human history continues unaffected by the unceasing rage, plotting, and vicious opposition of Satan and his henchmen.
We can be certain of God’s sovereignty and providence, even in life’s darkest hours of uncertainty.
