Trust and the Will of God (part 2)

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
~Romans 8:28-29

Infinite wisdom is something other than knowing more than finite beings;
it is wisdom in another dimension and thus wisdom beyond our ken.
All we can say is what the biblical writers so eloquently and explicitly say:
Despite our freedom, God is in complete control. Beyond that we cannot go.

Naturally, if some god is substituted other than the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, this doctrine would be unspeakably cruel, but providence is far more than kismet–fate–or impersonal, rigid control. Infinite love and wisdom lie behind every circumstance. If only we had eyes to see it, we would discover a loving and powerful Savior at work in every moment of our history and in every experience of our life—even in our sleep, our idle moments, and our play—turning us into glorious, winsome sons and daughters that He will enjoy forever.

Paul puts it this way: “We know that in all things [and he means all things]
God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according
to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed
to the likeness of his Son” (Romans 8:28–29).

Paul is not suggesting that all things are good, or ought to feel good, but
that all things are working for our good, the good for which we were created—
to be just like God’s own dear Son.

So must we forgo all long-range planning and simply go with the flow? No,
we can make our plans and dream our dreams, but we must do so fully aware
of God’s kindly and purposeful control. We “live and do this or that” as He
wills and works out His durable, eternal purpose for us.

My friend Jim Catlin recently described a friend of his who had his life
well mapped out: “I had to say to him,” Jim wrote, “that life is seldom that
linear, that predictable, and in light of God’s sovereign plans for us, that discernible. We have an obligation, no, a privilege, of exercising any capacity
that God has given us to plan ahead, but ultimately we must give a nod of
sovereignty to the One who sees the road ahead.”

God’s will is my safety—to know that I’m not on my own, to know that no
matter what I plan I am always in God’s plans. I can cast all my anxiety on
Him because He is caring for me.

To quote that peaceful angler Izaac Walton: “When I would beget content
and increase confidence in the providence of Almighty God, I will walk
the meadows by some gliding stream, and there contemplate the lilies
and other little dumb creatures for which God plans and cares and
therefore trust in Him.”

The word trust, they tell me, is an old contraction of the superlative degree
of true (true, truer, truest). Trust knows that God is incomparably true when
He tells us that all things—even those things that seem wrong or regressive—
are determined for our ultimate, eternal good.

Taken from Seeing God, © 2006 by David Roper. Used by permission of Discovery House Publishers, Box 3566, Grand Rapids MI 4950l. All rights reserved.