Romans 8:28–30

God, What Are You Doing?

Have you ever gone through a season and asked, “God, what are You doing?” You prayed for an open door and it closed. You prayed for a relationship to heal and it got worse. You prayed for healing and it hasn’t come yet. Pastor Mark said the question usually isn’t whether God is good. Paul is writing to believers, and believers know God is good. The real question is how we hold on to His goodness when what we’re going through doesn’t look good at all.

“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 image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”

Romans 8:28–30

Romans 8:28 is Pastor Mark’s favorite verse, but he believes it is sometimes quoted too quickly. When someone has just lost a spouse, that’s not the moment to recite it. Often the best thing we can offer is our presence: just being there, without trying to come up with an answer.

Weeks 1–4 · Romans 8:1–27

How We Got Here

Pastor Mark has preached for more than 30 years, and he’s concerned that much of today’s teaching is shallow, leaving people without the deep truths that keep them anchored. That’s why this series is walking through Romans 8, which he calls the greatest chapter in the Bible. It begins with no condemnation and ends with no separation. God is saying, “I have you all the way.”

Life is short. James calls it “a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14). Creation itself groans, waiting for the day God makes all things new. Until then, the truths in these verses work like deep moorings driven into the earth. When the storm comes, you can say, “I know God has a plan for me,” and you won’t be washed away.

Point 1 · Romans 8:28

God Is Working When You Can’t See It

“We know” means to recognize with assurance. Our confidence isn’t in a complete explanation of our circumstances. It’s in the faithfulness of God.

Notice the scope: all things. Not a few things. Trials, waiting, opposition, disappointment, seasons we would never choose. God is not absent from any of them. But this verse doesn’t mean God approves of evil, or that our sinful choices are excused because God can redeem them. The promise is for those who love God and have submitted their lives to Him through faith in Christ.

Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery. He was lied about, thrown into prison, and separated from his family for more than twenty years. Yet Joseph had given his life to the Lord, and God turned the evil done to him into a plan that saved many lives. Years later he told his brothers:

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

Genesis 50:20

Ask yourself: Am I trusting God’s character when I can’t see His hand?

Point 2 · Romans 8:28–29

God’s Good Is Greater Than Ours

When we hear that God works for our good, we naturally think of relief: the illness disappears, the money arrives, the job opens, the relationship is repaired. Those are good gifts, and we should pray for them. But Paul doesn’t leave “good” to our imagination. He defines it in the very next verse: being conformed to the image of His Son.

The word “good” means beneficial. The ultimate good isn’t a more comfortable life. It’s being transformed into Christ’s likeness and our final redemption in Him.

That doesn’t mean we stop praying for healing, deliverance, or breakthrough. God still heals and still answers prayer. But we must refuse to reduce His goodness to our preferred outcome. Pastor Mark often hears people say they stopped going to church because God didn’t heal something. God is not a genie in a bottle. He is the Creator who set the sun, moon, and stars in place, and He knows tomorrow. If He says no, it’s for our benefit.

Ask yourself: Am I measuring God’s goodness only by whether He gives me the outcome I wanted?

Point 3 · Romans 8:29

Becoming More Like Jesus

To be “conformed” means to share a form or likeness. Paul is describing a real transformation. We’re not just learning facts about Jesus; we’re being shaped to reflect who He is. Whatever you’re walking through right now, God wants to use it to make you more like His Son, not more comfortable.

God didn’t save us simply to improve our circumstances. He saved us to make us more like His Son. Ask yourself: What attitude or habit is the Holy Spirit asking me to surrender so Christ can be seen more clearly in me?

Point 4 · Romans 8:29–30

Five Words That Anchor Your Faith

Few passages have caused more debate in the church than these verses. Pastor Mark stressed that Paul didn’t give these words to start arguments. He gave them to encourage suffering believers that their suffering isn’t in vain, and that God’s plan for their salvation began long before they were born and reaches into eternity.

Before the world was created, God knew sin would enter it, so He provided Jesus as the atonement for our sin. But does predestination cancel free will? Pastor Mark pointed to John 3:16. Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9), and He shows us the Father’s heart:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

John 3:16

You’re the “whoever.” So is everyone outside these walls. That is choice. Paul says the same thing in Romans 10: if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9), because “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).

Ask yourself: Am I letting the size of the storm distract me from the faithfulness of the Captain?

Matthew 11:28

Trust the Captain

Back to the opening question: “God, what are You doing?” Sometimes, this side of eternity, you won’t know, and you have to be okay with that. Pastor Mark has walked through deep valleys that never came with an explanation. He’s come to this place: if he understood everything, God wouldn’t be God, and he wouldn’t need Him.

Joseph couldn’t see the whole story from the pit. Peter couldn’t see it from the courtyard where he denied Jesus. But God could. You may not see what He’s doing from where you’re standing today, but rest assured, He is working.

It’s easy to build a god in our own image, one we’ll only trust if he does what we want. But our God is holy. He spoke the stars into existence, and He can be trusted. The invitation He established before creation is still open: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

Pastor Mark admitted he preaches to himself too. His prayer: that his love for God would never be determined by his present circumstances, but by what God has already done. As he often tells Christie, if Jesus never did another thing for him, He has already done enough.