This is part of an ongoing series during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. To engage further in the #QuarantineSoulCare series, click here.
As David said in Psalm 138:8,”The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me.” Because we know God is directing our lives to an ultimate end and because we know He is sovereignly able to orchestrate the events of our lives toward that end, we can trust Him. We can commit to Him not only the ultimate outcome of our lives but also all the intermediate events and circumstances that will bring us to that outcome.
Still, it’s difficult for us to fully appreciate the reality of God’s sovereignly doing as He pleases in our lives because we don’t see Him doing anything. Instead, we see ourselves or other people acting and events occurring, and we evaluate those events and actions according to our own preferences and plans. We see ourselves influencing or perhaps controlling or being controlled by the actions of other people, but we don’t see God at work.
But over all the actions and events of our lives, God is in control, doing as He pleases—not apart from those events or in spite of them but through them. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery—a malicious act in and of itself—but in due time, Joseph recognized that through his brothers’ actions, God was acting. Joseph could say to them, “It was not you who sent me here, but God” (Genesis 45:8). …
You and I may never have the privilege in this life of seeing an obvious outcome of God’s plans for us, as Joseph did. But God’s plan for us is no less firm and its outcome no less certain than was God’s plan for Joseph. … What God did for Joseph, He will do for us. But to derive the comfort and encouragement from this truth God has provided, we must learn to trust Him. We must learn to walk, as Paul said, “by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
May today you persevere in the trust that God is working not apart from or in spite of but through these challenging times, for your good and the good of the world. #quarantinesoulcare Click To TweetTrust GOD from the bottom of your heart;
don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for GOD’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he’s the one who will keep you on track.
–Proverbs 3:5-11, The Message
Today’s reading was taken from Trusting God by Jerry Bridges.
