Trusting God’s Ultimate Plan
Trusting God’s Ultimate Plan
The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped.
One general theme emerged as I read. The people rebel and do their own thing. They cry out to God, and God rescues. Then they rebel again. Yet God’s plan is never thwarted. Over and over again, I read the same story just with different people and different events. As monotonous as these books of history have been, they have taught me so much about the character of God: His kindness, His provision, and His longing for His people to trust Him. He desires for all to know and love Him, even His proclaimed enemies. He goes to great lengths to prove He is trustworthy, performing miracles and wonders showing He is more powerful than all the false gods they worshiped.
God, there are so many things in life that are hard to understand: suffering and shootings and wars and injustice. There are times it seems evil is prevailing. Yet we know and cling to the truth: You have a plan, and it includes the triumph of good over evil. Evil has no power over You. Help us to trust you even in the midst of pain and confusion, and point this hurting world to our Savior Jesus.
The events that seem evil at the time, or even random, are allowed and used by God for His plan. One of the wickedest kings was King Ahab (along with his wife Jezebel). A prophet of God told him he would die, so he wore a disguise during battle in an attempt to outsmart God. But it didn’t work. “A certain man drew his bow at random and struck the king of Israel in the joint of the armor,” which killed Ahab (2 Chronicles 18:33 NASB). God used something apparently accidental to fulfill His will. Nothing is random, nothing is overlooked, nothing escapes God’s intentionality. His plan is good and we can trust Him to fulfill it.
And what is God’s ultimate plan? To send a Savior, His son Jesus, into the world to rescue ALL of us from sin and death. This is a plan that was known from the beginning and took thousands of years to execute. With each story and each king and each battle in the Old Testament, God moves the earth closer to Jesus’ arrival in the New Testament. There is no evil king from the past or wicked plan in the present that will stand in the way of God’s great rescue plan. He is good, and we can trust Him.
Steadfast and Sanctified
Steadfast and Sanctified Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing....
The Dangers of Spiritual Sleepwalking
The Dangers of Spiritual Sleepwalking But Paul went down, fell on him, and embracing him said, “Do not trouble yourselves, for his life is in him.” Acts 20:10 (ESV) A ccording to Sleep Foundation, sleep-walking affects 29% of children and about 4% of adults. Tales of...
God Sees A Mother
God Sees A Mother Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. Jeremiah 23:23-24 (ESV) O ne of my favorite days of...