Only God knows the "heart" of a person. He also told us there would be wolves in sheep's clothing among us. So many wolves in today's world. I also believe what someone means as an evil act, God can turn into good.
Totally agree.
Romans 8:28-30
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
My mother threw me out when I was 14.
I was fostered by a Christian family whom I knew from the Boys Brigade.
Not long after the fostership the foster father started to sexually abuse me.
Won't go into the details but I say what my mum did was evil and what my foster did was evil and as you can imagine this led to my life being messed up big time which had consequences for me as result.
It took God 30 years+ to work good.
I was at my foster father's death bead and sorted out his estate.
My mum and I have been reconciled
So now what was an evil act towards me God has turned into good.
As a result he his now using me to walk with others that I walked in and suffered.
I came to realise that God started to work good when I was willing to forgive. When I was the process of starting to work good began. It was a long long process.
For me the key is forgiveness.
One of my favourite quotes I read.
"To forgive is to set the prisoner free, only to realise the prisoner was you"
Makes me very sad that that when people quote v28 leave it at that.
It comes across as saying God will make what happened to you good but infact you cannot make it good, God does not make evil good but uses the evil that happened to us good for us.
As we see in
Romans 8:29
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
As I said above forgiveness is the key, this leads to healing to release in order to
Ephesians 2:10
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Those who did evil against me their sins were forgiven on the cross.
Who am I not forgive?