In the end, it will be totally obvious that God worked everything together for our good. He called you according to His purpose; He’s not making this up as He goes along. He foreknew, predestined, called, justified, and glorified you. What seems to you like a linear progression, one day at a time, is a completed whole for the Lord who loves you.
‌
So now we understand that everything that would typically signal defeat and loss — things like trouble, calamity, persecution, hunger, destitution, danger, or even death — these don’t actually touch our overwhelming victory in Christ. God is sovereign over even these crosses we bear; not that he delights in making you bear them, but rather the Crucified One is made nearer to you when you take up your cross. The things that would apparently separate you from the love of Jesus in fact draw you closer to it.