It all works out

Jeremiah 29:11-13    For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

The prophet Jeremiah was speaking to Judah, telling them to hang in there and not forsake God in their captivity. God was promising to deliver them from their captivity at the end of seventy years. There was hope that lied in Jeremiah’s prophecy for those that kept the eyes and hearts on God. God’s sovereignty is something we simply cannot grasp in our limited understanding; He is all knowing, past, present, and future. He holds everything in control, and he is not limited by time. We come to question the events in our lives, but this is doubt planted by Satan, and a small grasp of sovereignty will secure that hope in our hearts. Matthew Henry put it well, “We are sometimes ready to fear that God’s designs concerning us are all against us; but he knows the contrary concerning his own people, that they are thoughts of good and not of evil; even that which seems evil is designed for good. His thoughts are all working towards the expected end, which he will give in due time.”

Everything in your life, good or bad, is either allowed, or designed by God. All of it can either draw you closer to Him, or take your eyes off of him. When you know that you under His sovereignty, you will rest in it. You will seek Him to understand, or better yet to just draw closer to Him in it. The understanding may not come on your timetable, but the trial produces intimacy only found during them. James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. When you are getting knocked down, and those 1 2 3 blows seem to come, go to your knees, in prayer. Pour your heart out to God for strength found only in Him.

I am speaking to myself, for I have had a couple weeks full of punches. I have had “Murphy’s Law” two weeks at work, almost to the point of being comical to keep from crying. I have seen my oldest son get sick, when I thought he was ok and passed it off. I have had a rough couple of weeks while my wife has been on a mission trip abroad in many ways. She is out spreading the Good News of the hope that lies within her, and Satan has tried to take our eyes at home off the One she is speaking about. Spiritual warfare is fought on a heavenly plain; one that we cannot see, but we can feel. Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. In the great trial of Job, he did not understand that God meant if for good, but Job ultimately came to that understanding in God’s timing when he did not let his faith fail.