Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
3 16 2026
When “Everything Happens for a Reason” Is Actually True
Before we begin today, let me ask you something.
Have you ever noticed how many people—even people who don’t talk much about God—still say the same thing when life takes a strange turn?
Something unexpected happens… a door closes… a relationship changes…
a job appears out of nowhere… and someone will say,
“Well… everything happens for a reason.”
It’s interesting, isn’t it?
Even people who aren’t sure what they believe about God still feel that deep down,
life isn’t random.
Somewhere inside we sense there must be purpose behind the pieces laying at my feet.
And that simple statement often becomes a doorway… a quiet opening to talk about something deeper. Because the Bible actually tells us something far stronger than a hopeful phrase.
It gives us a promise.
You’ve heard the phrase before… and I’m sure you’ve even said it yourself.
“Everything happens for a reason.”
It’s one of those lines people say when life gets confusing or painful. Someone loses a job, a relationship falls apart, a diagnosis comes out of nowhere, and someone tries to comfort them by saying,
“Well… everything happens for a reason.”
Most of the time people mean well when they say it. They’re trying to offer hope. But the truth is… slogans don’t hold us up when life gets heavy. We don’t live on clichés.
We live on promises.
And the beautiful thing is that the Bible actually gives us something stronger than that phrase. It gives us a promise that goes much deeper. Look with me in Romans 8, the apostle Paul writes one of the most stabilizing truths in all of Scripture. He says:
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
Notice something about that verse. Paul doesn’t say we know why everything happens. He says we know something even more important. We know that God is working in it.
That’s very different.
Because if you’re honest, there are moments in life when you don’t know what to pray for… you don’t know what God is doing… and you certainly don’t know why things are happening the way they are. In fact, just two verses earlier Paul admits that very thing. He says in Romans 8:26 that
“we do not know what we ought to pray for.”
Have you ever been there?
Life gets complicated, painful, confusing… and you’re not even sure what the right prayer is anymore. If you are one of us taking the 21 days of prayer challenge, Paul says in those moments the Spirit actually helps us in our weakness. Even when we don’t know what to pray, God is still working.And then comes that incredible promise in verse 28.
“We know…”
Not we guess.
Not we hope.
We know.
That all things—both the good things and the painful things—are being woven together by God for good in the lives of those who love Him. (Now that doesn’t mean everything that happens is good). Some things in life are truly painful.
Loss.
Betrayal.
Illness.
Disappointment.
But Romans 8 tells us something powerful: God is not absent in those moments.
He is weaving.
It’s a little like looking at the backside of a tapestry. When you look from underneath, all you see are loose threads, knots, and tangled lines that make no sense. But from the top… the artist sees the full picture. That’s what God sees and is doing with our lives. Even the painful threads are being woven into something purposeful.
And Paul even tells us what that ultimate good is. In the very next verse he says that God is working to conform us to the image of His Son.
In other words, the deepest good God is producing in our lives is that we slowly become more like Christ. Sometimes through joy... Sometimes through suffering. But always through His faithful hand.
That’s why this promise becomes such a rock for believers. It’s my favorite anchor scripture! When the waves of disappointment and grief crash into our lives, this truth gives us stability and sanity and hope. Our lives are NOT random. Our suffering is NOT meaningless. Our story is NOT out of control.
It is in the hands of an all-wise, all-good, all-powerful Father.
And that’s why Christians throughout history have been able to say something remarkable even in the middle of hardship. Like Job, who lost almost everything and still said,
“The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Wow, that blows my mind that He was so deep in this belief and faith in God that he could mouth that. That means that’s plausible for me too…You Too! That kind of faith isn’t pretending life is easy. It’s trusting that God is still writing the story. And when we know that we know that…doesn’t that change the landscape and your faith that all thing WILL work together for good?
And maybe tonight the real question isn’t why things are happening the way they are.
Maybe the question is this:
What is God shaping through it?
Because sometimes the very things we try hardest to hold together are the things God is gently
asking us to surrender.
Let me ask you something quietly today…
What part of your life are you still trying to hold together that God may be asking you to surrender?
Because when we place those things back into His hands, we discover something beautiful.
The God who controls every sparrow that falls… the God who numbers every hair on our head… is the same God who is carefully shaping our lives. Please let that settle in. And the promise of Romans 8 is that one day we will see the whole tapestry.
And when we do, we’ll discover that even the threads we didn’t understand were never wasted. They were part of the reason. And part of the story God was writing all along.
And maybe one day, when we finally see the whole tapestry God has been weaving through our lives, we’ll realize something that was hard to see while we were living it.
The closed doors…
The detours…
The painful chapters we didn’t understand…
They were never wasted.
Because in the hands of God, nothing is random and nothing is meaningless.
Even the threads we struggled to understand were part of the design.
And that’s why for those who love Him…
Everything really does happen for a reason.
Some of the insights here were inspired by an article from John Piper on God’s providence in Romans 8.
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I host an Online Discovering Jesus class for my last Tuesday night March 17th
at 7pm – 8:30 ONLINE for people of all ages. Here is your link to join us on Tuesday.
If you desire to invite someone send them this email and just have them join us. https://meet.google.com/cfm-udos-iks My Next class is scheduled for May 5th after our Annual Beach Baptism where over 1,000 are baptised at Grace Family Church. Mark your calendars.
Leanna Crawford Can I be Honest Prayer,
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