Why memorizing Romans 8:28-29 is important

This month the Scripture memory verse for the church is Romans 8:28-29 —

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.  For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;

The reason we have picked the verses we have is to provide basic tools in the spiritual life — these are key verses to equip us to think and meditate on godly truths as we navigate our way through the passages of life.

Sinclair Ferguson made the point of why this particular passage is so important for the believer in a recent sermon (or here):

[Paul] says…God works all things together for the good of those who love Him who are called according to His purpose — and as you look at the providences of life, the one mistake you must not make is to say “I will judge the degree of God’s love by my ability to interpret His providences.”  Actually, that really does lead you into health, wealth and happiness.  “If God really loves me, then God will yield to what I think is good for my life.”

“No,” says Paul, “if God really loves you, He will bend heaven and earth to conform you to His Son Jesus Christ and since you are so unlike His Son Jesus Christ, that may be a piece of work in your life!”  So how I look on those circumstances that make others say to me, “So sorry you’re going through this; I don’t understand.”…

They have no idea what God is doing.  Paul is saying here that there is something we need to understand that we do not read the love of God from our ability to interpret the providences of God.  We learn to interpret the providences of God in the light of the one place in which he has demonstrated without fear of contradiction that He loves us to death.

The circumstances of our life are not happenstance, coincidence, or fate.  Our life circumstances are the result of the action of God to conform us to look like His Son Jesus Christ.

Because that truth does not readily come to mind, we memorize those verses so that we will have something to think on and believe when providential action does not conform to our desires.  What must change at that moment are our desires so that our trust in God remains firm.