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.  (Romans 8:28-29)

Is God here telling us that He intentionally controls events in this world so that the outcome of every event is designed to make us smile, to make us happy, and to amuse us?  Is that what God means by all things work together for “good”?

No, for the very nature of the world itself, our own history, and the biographies of the martyrs tell us otherwise.  Outcomes of life events, like life itself, is often an extended period of pain and suffering before coming to its corporeal conclusion.

But such endings do not mean that the end is not good.  We must know what good means.  In the Greek, this word (agathos) simply means “anything good and righteous.”  Therefore, it is necessary to understand what is good for men as God perceives this question.

For example:

It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.  The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.  Your hands made me and fashioned me; give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.  (Psalms 119:71-73)

So “good” from God’s perspective is not how we “feel” in the end, but what we have done or have become as a result of the things He has caused to happen.  In other words, that we become conformed to the image of His Son, that One who is perfect, humble, obedient, and righteous.

It means God works trials in our life so that the outcome is: we begin to obey Him and act like Him, and this is "good" for us. Such an interpretation is consistent with James 1 where we are told that trials produce faith, obedience, and righteousness through the mechanism of endurance. In fact, James tells us we have to "imagine" (reckon) the trial to be joy because no trial is joyful while you are going through it (see also Hebrews 12:7-11).

What is more “good” for us than becoming conformed to the image of God’s Son?