Our adult Bible class, which meets at Cornerstone EFC on Sunday mornings, has been going through the book of Romans. We're in chapter 8, which I think is a chapter that's worthy of at least a year's worth of serious study, but we'll not be there that long (I don't think, anyway). Verse 28 has long been a blessing to so many––
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose
What we've found is, this verse comes in the flow of context of great suffering, groaning and moaning, both of creation and our own souls, as we await the final redemption God has planned. In the midst of all that hardship, God is working. The reasons this is such a comfort, the foundation of all that's a blessing in this grand verse come in the, may I say it this way, even grander verses which follow––
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
We had some good discussion on God's foreknowledge. As expected, there are some who have always believed (because they were taught this when they were younger, or they simply assumed it to be this way) that God looked through time, saw our faith and then predestined us to be His adopted children, called by His grace, Word and Spirit. There are many difficulties with this line of thinking, which I don't have space to elaborate upon here.
I heard a sermon this past week, from the book of John, that helped my thinking become even more clear on this: Does God know everything, "the end from the beginning" (Isaiah 46.10), before it happens and thus it has also been predestined by Him? Or does God learn from what it taking place as history marches along, whether it's our exercising faith and believing or whether it's our going through suffering, and then He is able to react and work? It's a huge difference, I believe.
In the former, God is clearly sovereign; completely and utterly sovereign over His creation. In the latter, He is not; there's an open-endedness to God regarding even things in the future which He does not yet know. His knowledge is not complete about those things which have not yet happened. Therefore, it can be said that God "learns" as He goes. When we are confronted with the gospel claims and exercise OUR faith (which, I'll confess it here right now, is contra Ephesians 2.8–9), God learns of this and finishes off the process of salvation. When He sees us in the midst of suffering (or even as it first gets started), He "learns" of this and then is able to work that for our good.
Do you see the HUGE difference here? In this latter case, God clearly doesn't always know when or if we'll face suffering, but at least He is powerful enough to do something about it once it comes upon us. In the former, He knows it's coming, indeed, He has ordained its coming and He clearly had grand and glorious purposes in store for us (and perhaps others as well; I'm convinced there is a corporate aspect to verse 28 that most of us forget because we think so individualistically in America) and He is working that out since before the beginning of time. This is the God of the Scriptures. This is the God who created all things for His glory. This is the God who has saved me from my sins.
You may disagree with (and trust me, you would not be the first!), but I think your God is too small. I think you've put Him in a box of your own sovereign rule, as pitifully small as that sovereignty may be. I would challenge you to search the Scriptures, to see if these things are true, and worship this God who acts for His glory and our good, and leave behind the smallish God who can only react, if we're even willing to let Him do that.