Romans 8:28
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Now it’s all well and good to get to the other side of a conflict or trial and say, “Ah, I see what that was all about now,” but it’s an entirely different thing to be in the muck and in the confusion and say, “God, I don’t know how, but I trust you are using this for my good. I trust you have a plan.”

The key to living in a redemptive way, to trusting Jesus the Redeemer, is to be trusting him to redeem you in the circumstances and situations, not after the fact. Anyone can get to the end of something and in a “whew!” moment, say “Well, I’m glad God got me out of that. Looking back, I can see he meant something with all that.”
But it takes a tough faith to be in the middle of by-all-indications desperate circumstances and think, “I’m glad you’re doing something with this, God.”
Because what is faith? It’s not retrospect.

Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

This conviction of things not seen isn’t just about trusting God to use our mess for glory; it’s also about trusting He’s in control of that mess and that there really is a higher order in place to which the mess is subject.

When you go around living a life of grace towards others, blessing your enemies, praying for those who hate you, forgiving those who keep hurting you, you are showing that your faith is in something Hoped For, that your convictions are about things not seen. Living a life of grace and hope and joy is really living a life of faith. And when you go around redeeming the difficult moments while you're stuck in the middle of them and being God’s instrument in bringing redemption to people, you are participating in the grand story God’s telling about Jesus the Redeemer. You are a vital character in the story of redemption God is telling about you, the ones you live with and around, and the Church and the world itself.

It takes a hard core faith, though. A radical faith. Anybody who’s lost one thing that is dear to them – whether it be a person who’s died or a dream that’s died – knows the exquisite agony of such trust.

Job 19:20-26

My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh,
and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends,
for the hand of God has touched me!
Why do you, like God, pursue me?
Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?

"Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
Oh that with an iron pen and lead
they were engraved in the rock forever!
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God.

That is a living hope right there. A hope that says, “God you’ve taken everything. But I still trust you.”
Elsewhere Job says to God, “Though you slay me, yet will I trust you.”
In other words, "All I've got left is this miserable body of mine, and even if you want to take that away, God, I'm trusting You."
He wasn't trusting God for a new family and more stuff. He was just trusting God. Period.

Job’s faith here is not a pie in the sky, “wake me when I’m in heaven” faith. He says, "Even though this body will be destroyed, in my flesh I will see God. He knows that God will redeem his very body, give him new flesh, new eyes to see, new ears to hear, a new tongue to taste how good God is."

That’s what Jesus will do in the resurrection to come.

Someday Jesus the Redeemer will return to redeem everything. He’s going to come to finish what he started. This life will be redeemed, this earth will be redeemed, these very bodies will be redeemed, and so our hopes and dreams and fears and failings will all be redeemed too.

Revelation 21:1-5
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."

And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

He is making all things new. And he’s doing it now. So whatever you’re going through, whatever you’ve been through, trust that the God who loves you is in control and is redeeming your life in it and through it. Trust that the God who loves you will sustain you as you seek to live redemptively with and toward others. Trust that the God who loves you will not forget you, that he’s crafting beauty out of your darkness, that he’s telling a great story in your life, an epic one that places you in a vital role in the story of the Body of Christ.

Whatever you’re doing, wherever you are, wherever life finds you, trust that the former things are passing away and Jesus the Redeemer is making all things new. Trust Him for that now -- in the moments, in the redemption of the momentary pain -- and that later redemption will be that much sweeter and more momentous.