God is Always Doing 10,000 Things in Your Life

John Piper

“God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.” That was one of our most widely spread tweets in 2012. So we want to say it again for 2013 and make this promise even more solid.

Not only may you see a tiny fraction of what God is doing in your life; the part you do see may make no sense to you.

• You may find yourself in prison, and God may be advancing the gospel among the guards, and making the free brothers bold. (Philippians 1:12–14)

• You may find yourself with a painful thorn, and God may be making the power of Christ more beautiful in weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:7–9)

• You may find yourself with a dead brother that Jesus could have healed, and God may be preparing to show his glory. (John 11:1–44)

• You may find yourself sold into slavery, accused falsely of sexual abuse, and forgotten in a prison cell, and God may be preparing you to rule a nation. (Genesis 37–50)

• You may wonder why a loved one is left in unbelief so long, and find that God is preparing a picture of his patience and a powerful missionary. (Galatians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:12–16)

• You may live in all purity and humility and truth only to end rejected and killed, and God may be making a parable of his Son and an extension of his merciful sufferings in yours. (Isaiah 53:3; Mark 8:31; Colossians 1:24)

• You may walk through famine, be driven from your homeland, lose husband and sons, and be left desolate with one foreign daughter-in-law, and God may be making you an ancestor of a King. (Ruth 1–4)

• You may find the best counselor you’ve ever known giving foolish advice, and God may be preparing the destruction of your enemy. (2 Samuel 17:14)

• You may be a sexually pure single person and yet accused of immorality, and God may be preparing you as a virgin blessing in ways no one can dream. (Luke 1:35)

• You may not be able to sleep and look in a random book, and God may be preparing to shame your arrogant enemy and rescue a condemned people. (Esther 6:1–13)

• You may be shamed and hurt, and God may be confirming your standing as his child and purifying you for the highest inheritance. (Hebrews 12:5–11)

There are three granite foundation stones under this confidence for 2013: God’s love. God’s sovereignty. God’s wisdom.

“There is no power in the universe that can stop God from fulfilling his totally good plans for you.”TweetShare on Facebook

Love: In the death of Christ on our behalf, God has totally removed his wrath from us (Romans 8:3; Galatians 3:13). Now there is not only no condemnation (Romans 8:1), but now God is only merciful (Romans 8:32). Even his discipline is all mercy.

Sovereignty: There is no power in the universe that can stop him from fulfilling his totally good plans for you. “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2).

Wisdom: God’s infinite wisdom always sees a way to bring the greatest good out of the most painful and complex situations. “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Romans 11:33).

Therefore, no matter what you face this year, God will be doing 10,000 things in your life that you cannot see. Trust him. Love him. And they will all be good for you.

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Why I Love the Apostle Paul: 30 Reasons.

Stay Out of the Ditches

Paul Tautges

When I was a sophomore in high school, I learned how to drive a car. After I passed the required driver’s education class that fall semester, I enrolled in the behind-the-wheel part of the training. Learning to drive my dad’s 1973 Pontiac Catalina, with its 400 cubic-inch V-8, was more than a little fun. But learning to drive on the winter roads of Wisconsin was also a valuable experience. “Stay out of the ditch” was one of my dad’s favorite lines. In fact, once I got my license, it was not uncommon for Mom or Dad to say to me as I was leaving for my job at McDonald’s, “Stay out of the ditch.”

I grew up in a subdivision in the country, surrounded by farmer’s fields, a delightful place for five boys and one girl to be raised. But living out in the country had its challenges, too, especially in winter. We were fifteen minutes from the nearest gas station or grocery store, so we had to plan ahead. It also meant that our roads were not the first to be plowed during or after a snowstorm. This made winter driving difficult for mature adults, and quite exciting for high school boys. It was not easy to stay out of the ditches. Take a corner a little too fast, or hit a small patch of black ice, and you might be spinning around in no time at all.

But, as some of you may know, you only have to get stuck and towed out once to realize that sliding off the road, and into the ditch, throws a monkey wrench into your schedule. And can be more than a little embarrassing, since being late for work was not something that was smiled upon. All in all, I learned that if you are going to get to your final destination safely you need to stay out of the ditches.

The same principle applies to Bible doctrine. Staying on the road of biblical doctrine means staying out of the ditches. Sometimes the ditches are pretty deep and easy to see, like obvious theological errors. Others are shallow and not as easy to detect, like imbalances or extremes. The doctrines of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility are two examples.

Sometimes Christians go off the good road by sliding into the ditch of believing that God’s sovereignty eliminates man’s responsibility, thus making man a puppet. They might get stuck in that ditch for quite some time. While they are lounging in their spiritual Lazy-Boy recliner, they’re wondering when God is just going to do something to meet their needs or zap them into super spirituality.

Other times Christians go off the good road by sliding into the ditch of believing that man’s free will is absolute, thus making God a cosmic Santa Claus whose authority is limited to responding to their good or bad decisions.

Thankfully, the Word of God presents the absolute sovereignty of God, and the limited free agency of man—not as enemies—but as friends. There is no question that God is sovereign, and we are not. But what is so fascinating about the way that God works is that He has chosen to work out His gracious sovereignty in such a way that man’s limited free agency is respected and even utilized to carry out His bigger plan. Most importantly, the bigger plan of our redemption.

That is what we see taking place in the second chapter of Ruth, a little book revealing some behind-the-scenes working out of God’s providence for certain individuals, while always keeping the big picture of His redemptive plan in focus. Here we see the companionship that divine sovereignty enjoys with human responsibility and accountability.

There are three important truths that God wants you to understand and live out in your faith walk with Him.

Recognize the dual realities of divine provision and human responsibility (v. 1-3)

Remember the relationship between divine grace and human reward (v. 4-16)

Receive the blessings of divine kindness through human generosity (v. 17-23)

God was working out His gracious plan in and through the lives of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz. But He did not do His work in opposition to human responsibility, but through it.

It was through Naomi’s decision to return to Bethlehem that Ruth is brought into the field of redemption.

It was through the kindness of Boaz that the material needs of two widows were met.

It was through Ruth’s simple faithfulness and hard work, day in and day out, that the will of God was accomplished in her life. And she did all of this without knowledge of the big picture, without knowing where her daily obedience to God would take her.

But through the lives of these individuals, the glorious plan of God was marching on toward the day when the Redeemer would come to save sinners like you and me.

Followers of God in the Old Testament lived each day in anticipation of the coming Redeemer. And so it is for you and me. Though we now live after the first coming of the Savior, the Scriptures assure us that He is coming. And so we, too, walk by faith and not by sight.

Posted at: https://counselingoneanother.com/2019/12/09/stay-out-of-the-ditches/

Cultivating Godly Character While Waiting on God

Dave Jenkins

A little over seven years ago in May 2012, I graduated from seminary with my second Master’s Degree. Since that time, I’ve been applying to a variety of pastor positions to no avail. While I’ve had a lot of interviews, none of them have resulted in me receiving a call from a local church.  

In the meantime, I’ve served in the local church in a variety of roles since graduating high school almost two decades ago. Presently, I serve as a writer, editor, podcaster, and speaker living in Southern California. 

Waiting on God is challenging, frustrating, and painful. See, our flesh and our instant-gratification-society don’t teach us patience. They teach us to snap our fingers and expect whatever we want in a matter of minutes.  

Today you might be like me, waiting on the Lord to provide that job you want. Or you might be struggling with discouragement, depression, anxiety, and worry. I don’t have a magic formula that will ensure you get what you want in an instant. Nor do I have a to-do list for you to reach your best life today. And let’s be honest, you and I both know that won’t work.  

Instead, what you and I both need is the Bible and what it teaches about waiting on God. 

The Bible’s Teaching on Waiting on God

The Lord gives us great promises in His Word so that we’ll trust Him in seasons of life where we’re waiting on Him. Look with me now at some of the biblical teaching on waiting on the Lord: 

• Lamentations 3:5: “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.”

• Psalm 33:20-22: “Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.”

• Psalm 130:5-6: “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.”

• Psalm 27:14: “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”

• Micah 7:7: “But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.”

• Isaiah 64:4: “From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.”

Focusing on the Lord 

I don’t know about you, but I am often guilty of focusing too much on my circumstances. When we replay our situations over and over in our mind, we are not thinking about what is noble, pure, and good as Philippians 4:8 says.

If we are so focused on what is negative in our lives, we will never give thanks like we’ve been commanded by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:18. And if we aren’t giving thanks, we will focus too much on our circumstances. We’ll become frustrated with life, getting discouraged, depressed, and full of anxiety.

Instead, what the Lord offers is for us to rejoice in Him (Philippians 4:4) because we believe that He alone is sufficient (Philippians 4:13). Such a perspective shift will help us to become focused less on our challenges and more on the Lord who helps us through our difficulties. 

Challenges are Opportunities to Grow in Grace 

Within the last month, a book project of mine got rejected by a major Christian publisher. And then I again got that dreaded email, though nicely worded, that I was rejected by a church for a pastor position I applied to.  

Talk about a double whammy. It felt like a gut-punch. Needless to say, I didn’t respond well. I immediately went negative, but later in the evening, I went on a walk, had a good cry, poured out my soul to the Lord, and preached the gospel to myself. 

Then, I walked back home, headed to bed, kissed my wife, and told her I love her. I prayed and hit my pillow to sleep for the night. I woke up the next morning, ready for the day, and refreshed in the Lord. 

At the moment, that rejection from my book project and the church devastated me. But what I remembered while on my walk was that Jesus was thoroughly rejected in every way by humanity at the cross. I considered how my worst days are nothing compared to Jesus’s worst day. 

It is because He was rejected by the world He came to save, I am now adopted, fully accepted, and loved by Him because of His finished and sufficient work.

The Seasons of Our Life Are Not for Us Alone 

The seasons of our lives are not for us alone; they are for others also. When you grab hold at the heart level that God is faithful and good, you will wait on Him with faith in Him.  

You will also trust him in the storms of life knowing that the storm may shake you, but you are held in the storm by none other than the Creator and Lord who secures your salvation in Christ alone. 

You may say, “I get that in my head,” but it’s not just in the head where this truth should hit us. We need to know and experience it in our hearts. As I continue to grow myself in applying these truths to my own heart, I grow more peaceful and content in Christ.   

To that end, I daily remind myself that the seasons of my life are governed by the hand of a sovereign God who loves me and cares for me. This truth helps me to face the present and the future with confidence in His sovereignty.

Perhaps today you are tired of waiting, sometimes patiently and sometimes not. What you need to understand is this: in Christ, you and I have been given everything, and all of it is of grace. No matter how long we have to wait on God, He is still good and sufficient.   

We can trust the Lord while we wait on Him and look to the author and finisher of our faith, Jesus. who alone secures the beloved and who now faithfully intercedes for the people of God. 

Let’s you and I commit as His friends while we wait on the Lord to trust and to grow in Him. It’s here in waiting on God where we will become men and women of godly character, useful to our Master so that He may use us to lift high the name of Jesus, for His glory.  

THE AUTHOR

Dave Jenkins is happily married to Sarah Jenkins. He is a writer, editor, and speaker living in sunny Southern California. Dave is a lover of Christ, His people, and sound theology. He serves as the Executive Director of Servants of Grace Ministries, the Executive Editor of Theology for Life Magazine, and is the Host for the Equipping You in Grace Podcast. Dave loves to spend time with his wife, going to movies, eating at a nice restaurant, or going out for a round of golf with a good friend. He is also a voracious reader, in particular of Reformed theology, and the Puritans. You will often find him when he’s not busy with ministry reading a pile of the latest books from a wide variety of Christian publishers. Dave received his MAR and M.Div through Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary.

Posted at: https://unlockingthebible.org/2019/07/cultivating-godly-character-while-waiting-god/

God Invites You to Delight Yourself in Him

Randy Alcorn

Psalm 37:4 is a great but often misunderstood verse: “Delight yourselves in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Some people take this to mean that God will give us whatever we think we want. But the key part is “delight yourself in God.” When we delight in the Lord He often changes our heart’s desires to what most honors Him, then grants them to us. It’s not that we always get what we want, but that He teaches us to value and even want what He—in His sovereign and loving plan—gives us.

As we contemplate God, and ponder who He is, we will want what He wants. The desire of our hearts will be to hear Him say to us, “Well done.” And when that day comes, He will flood us with more joy than we can imagine. He will say, “Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:21, 23).

But we don’t have to wait until we die to know how He wants us to live! He commands us, for His glory and our good, to delight in Him not just in Heaven forever, but also on this present earth, here and now. 

To delight in God is to be happy with Him and in Him. To do that, we must cultivate our relationship with Him just as we do with other people by spending time with Him, bowing our knee before Him as our Lord, and also spending time with Him as our friend. That’s how we get to know Him, by learning and meditating daily on what’s true about Him. (I recommend these great books: Knowing God by J. I. Packer,  The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer, and Trusting God by Jerry Bridges.) 

In Bible study it’s always helpful to think about what the text says in contrast to what it does not say. It says, “Delight yourself in the Lord.” It doesn’t say, “Sit there and wait for the Lord to come and delight you.”

It’s active, not passive.  God doesn’t spoon-feed us His pleasures; we need to go to His banquet, reach out our hands, and select that delicious cuisine. As surely as it’s our responsibility to put good food in our mouths, it’s our responsibility to move our bodies to open His Word and move our minds toward God, and to seek to delight in Him!

While it’s true that God and His Word are nourishing, just knowing that won’t bring us to the table. We need to turn from our self-preoccupied thoughts and instead seek to cultivate our appetite for God: “Taste and see that the Lord is good. How happy is the man who takes refuge in Him!”(Psalm 34:8, HCSB).

When I contemplate Christ—when I meditate on His unfathomable love and grace—I lose myself in Him instead of in my hurts and disappointments and fears. When He’s the center of my thinking, before I know it, I’m happy.

Here’s the Good News Translation’s rendering of Psalm 37:4: “Seek your happiness in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desire.” This corresponds to the words of Jesus: “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need” (Matthew 6:33, NLT).

Augustine said, “Love God and do as you please.” At first this sounds shocking, but it fits perfectly with “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will grant you the desires of your heart.” When we find our happiness in God, we will naturally want to do what pleases Him. But it’s up to us to go to Him and ask for His help and empowerment to delight in Him.

God placed just one restriction on Adam and Eve in Eden, and when they disregarded it, the universe unraveled. On the New Earth, that test will no longer be before us. God’s law, the expression of His attributes, will be written on our hearts (Hebrews 8:10). No rules will be needed, for our hearts will be given over to God. We will always delight ourselves in the Lord and He will always give us the desires of our hearts.

Whatever we want will be exactly what He wants for us. What we should do will at last be identical with what we want to do. On God’s New Earth there will never by any difference between duty and delight!

But we don’t have to wait, and we dare not, to discover this. Let’s delight ourselves in Him so that we can enter into His happiness now, not just after we die.

Browse more resources on the topic of happiness, and see Randy’s related books, including Happiness.

Posted at: https://www.epm.org/blog/2019/May/31/god-invites-you-delight-yourself-him?mc_cid=f3b0f4c0d6&mc_eid=3c0fdc7348&fbclid=IwAR0Zn0kNzr8mSLFJTXH7CebxrJ52nVfD0YKaKno48CZXnIVMA-MU5Q1aB3g

Elisabeth Elliot: "Your Suffering Is Never For Nothing"

Editors’ note:  This is an adapted excerpt from Suffering Is Never for Nothing(B&H Books, 2019).

It’s only in the cross that we can begin to harmonize the seeming contradiction between suffering and love. And we will never understand suffering unless we understand the love of God.

We’re talking about two different levels on which things are to be understood. And again and again in the Scriptures we have what seem to be complete paradoxes because we’re talking about two different kingdoms. We’re talking about this visible world and an invisible kingdom through which the facts of this world are interpreted.

Suffering in Scripture

Take for example the Beatitudes, those wonderful statements of paradox that Jesus gave to the multitudes when he was preaching to them on the mountain (Matt. 5:3–12). He said strange things like this:

How happy are those who know what sorrow means. Happy are those who claim nothing. Happy are those who have suffered persecution. What happiness will be yours when people blame you and ill treat you and say all kinds of slanderous things against you. Be glad then, yes, be tremendously glad.

Does it make any sense at all?

Not unless you see there are two kingdoms: the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of an invisible world. And the apostle Paul understood the difference when he made this stunning declaration. He said, it is now my happiness to suffer for you, my happiness to suffer (Col. 1:24). It sounds like nonsense, doesn’t it? And yet this is God’s Word. Janet Erskine Stuart said, “Joy is not the absence of suffering but the presence of God.”

It’s what the psalmist found in the valley of the shadow of death: “I will fear no evil” (Ps. 23:4). Now the psalmist was not naïve enough to say, “I will fear no evil because there isn’t any.” There is. We live in an evil, broken, twisted, fallen, distorted world. What did he say? “I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”

My Suffering

When I stood by my shortwave radio in the jungle of Ecuador in 1956 and heard that my husband, Jim Elliot, was missing, God brought to my mind the words of the prophet Isaiah: “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee” (Isa. 43:2). You can imagine that my response was not terribly spiritual. I was saying, “But Lord, you’re with me all the time. What I want is Jim. I want my husband.” We had been married 27 months after waiting five-and-a-half years.

Five days later I knew that Jim was dead. And God’s presence with me was not Jim’s presence. That was a terrible fact. God’s presence didn’t change the terrible fact that I was a widow, and I expected to be a widow until I died because I thought it was a miracle I got married the first time. I couldn’t imagine that I would ever get married a second time, let alone a third. God’s presence didn’t change the fact of my widowhood. Jim’s absence thrust me, forced me, hurried me to God, my hope and my only refuge.

Suffering is an irreplaceable medium through which I learned an indispensable truth: God is God.

And I learned in that experience who God is in a way I could never have known otherwise. And so I can say to you that suffering is an irreplaceable medium through which I learned an indispensable truth: God is God. Well, I still want to go back and say, “But Lord, what about that little child with spina bifida? What about those babies born terribly handicapped, with terrible suffering because their mothers were on cocaine or heroin or alcohol? What about my little Scottie dog, McDuff, who died of cancer at the age of six? What about the Lindbergh baby and the Stams who were beheaded? What about all of that?”

Mystery of Suffering

And I can’t answer your questions, or even my own, except in the words of Scripture, these words from the apostle Paul who knew the power of the cross of Jesus. And this is what he wrote:

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God” (Rom. 8:18–19).

The creation was made the victim of frustration—all those animals, all those babies who have no guilt whatsoever—not by its own choice, but because of him who made it so; yet always there was hope. And this is the part that brings me immeasurable comfort: The universe itself is to be freed from the shackles of mortality and enter upon the liberty and splendor of the children of God.

Where does this idea of a loving God come from? It is not a deduction. It is not man so desperately wanting a god that he manufactures him in his mind. It’s he who was the Word before the foundation of the world, suffering as a lamb slain. And he has a lot up his sleeve that you and I haven’t the slightest idea about now. He’s told us enough so we can know that suffering is never for nothing.

Elisabeth Elliot was a Christian author and speaker. Her first husband, Jim Elliot, was killed in 1956 while attempting to make missionary contact with the Auca of eastern Ecuador.

Posted at: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/elisabeth-elliot-suffering-never-nothing/

Are You Sure You Want To Pray This?

Article by Paul Tripp

I don’t think you could pray more dangerous words than these three: “Thy Kingdom Come.”

If we truly understood what we were saying, we would probably pause before inviting such upheaval through our door. This often overused and underestimated petition can only be answered by turning our lives upside down and inside out.

Let’s be honest. We don’t always greet God’s kingdom with delight. We want certain things in life, and we not only want them, but we know how, when, and where we want them.

I want my wife to be a joyful and committed supporter of my dreams. My children are now grown, but I still want them (and their spouses and their children) to appreciate the fact that they have been blessed with me!

I want my schedule to be unobstructed and predictable. I want my peers and neighbors to hold me in high esteem. I want the ministry initiatives I direct to be well received and successful.

I want the pleasures and entertainment I prefer to be available on-demand.

I don’t want to suffer. I don’t want to live without.

Have you ever stopped and listened to yourself? Does the soundtrack to your life sometimes sound like this? “I want, I want, I want...”

It’s humbling and embarrassing to admit, but a lot of the time, we just want our kingdom to come and our will to be done.

When there’s no larger kingdom to capture my allegiance, my life sadly becomes about what I want and how I can use other people as a vehicle to get what I want.

The simple prayer that Christ teaches us with “Thy Kingdom Come” is the antidote to a selfish and self-destructive life. Since sin starts with the heart, I’ll only live within the moral boundaries God has set when my heart desires God’s will more than it desires my own.

“Thy Kingdom Come” - these three simple words are words of surrender, words of protection, and words of freedom.

1. Pray Willingly. “Lord, I surrender to doing everything I do, saying everything I say, and choosing everything I choose for the sake of your kingdom and not mine.”

2. Pray Humbly. “Father, I am still tempted to think that I know better than you, so once again please protect me from my own foolishness.”

3. Pray Eagerly. “God, help me to love you above all else and my neighbor as myself, so I can experience the freedom that results when you break my bondage from me.”

And pray thankfully.

Only God’s transforming grace can produce this kind of prayer in your heart, and because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that grace is freely and generously available!

That’s what it means to pray “Thy Kingdom Come.”

God bless

Paul David Tripp

Reflection Questions

1. In what ways have you pursued your own kingdom this week? What have the results been?

2. In what ways have you pursued God's kingdom this week? What have the results been?

3. What is God calling you to surrender to his kingdom this week?

4. Why should you pray for humility this week? What do you need to be protected from?

5. Why should you seek God's kingdom eagerly this week? What blessings have you experienced when you choose God's will over your own?

THANKING GOD FOR EVERYTHING

Article by Lore Ferguson Wilbert

Nestled among a long list of exhortations and blessings in 1 Thessalonians is a line we’ll see in plenty this month. Distressed on barn wood at your local craft store, printed on banners hung in the dining room, embossed on the ceramic plate the turkey is served on, and rife in sermons everywhere, “Give thanks in everything,” is the rally cry of November. But, like Aunt Jane’s consistently overcooked turkey, the truncated statement can also leave a dry taste in our mouths.

Gratitude will be on the rise for the next two months, followed by a sharp decline on January first when we resolve to change all the things our mere gratitude couldn’t change: love-handles, schedules, relationships, the project we’ve been putting off. There’s nothing like a full serving of gratitude to show us just how many things exist for which we’re still not thankful. We will give thanks for everything except all the things for which we’re still bent on changing.

“For what is God’s will for me? This.“

I have a stack on my desk of books to read and review, menu-plans to make, a driver’s license to renew, and a book contract to fulfill within the first month of 2019. As grateful as I am for a job I love, the freedom to eat and cook whole, healthy food, and a license to drive, I’m decidedly unthankful for the work they all will require of me. I can trick myself into being grateful, topping my cake of grumbling with the frosting of thanksgiving, but it’s still a dismal cake beneath. I need the words with which Paul follows up his exhortation: “For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

For what is God’s will for me? This.

This everything. This messy desk, these deadlines, this schedule I can’t wrangle into submission, this monotonous line in which I’ll stand to get an unflattering photo of me laminated onto a card I’ll carry for the next eight years. All of this is God’s will for me. And not only this, that which I can see directly in front of me, but all that I can’t see either. The unfulfilled longings for children we’ve been unable to have, the suburbs in which we feel landlocked and stifled, the community of friends in which there are struggles to connect and experiences of conflict, the unrealized hopes and smothered dreams—these too are the will of God for me in Christ Jesus.

If we are only ever grateful for that which we enjoy or love or can see the eternal good in, we aren’t really thankful. We’re merely counting our blessings. True gratefulness means seeing and trusting and believing entirely that what comes our way is God’s good and best will for us. It means trusting—really trusting—that if we don’t have a thing we desire, we aren’t intended to have it today. It doesn’t mean we can’t still long for it, hope for it, and ask our Father for it (and we should), but it does mean the troubles we face today are sufficient for today. And the manna we’ve been given today is enough for the day.

This holiday season, I want to make a practice of thanking God for everything—even the really, really difficult things. Not because I’m a super-Christian, but because in Christ Jesus, and by the grace of God, everything right now is the will of God for me.

ABOUT LORE FERGUSON WILBERT

Lore Ferguson Wilbert is a writer, thinker, and learner. She blogs at Sayable.net, tweets and instagrams at @lorewilbert. She is a member at The Village Church in Texas and the wife of a man named Nate.

Posted at: https://lifewayvoices.com/culture-current-events/thanking-god-for-everything/

When the Future Feels Impossible

Article by Vaneetha Rendall Risner

A dear friend of mine is walking through a heartbreaking illness.

When I heard the news, I was shaken. I, who write about suffering, had no words to offer. What could I say anyway? Words seemed inadequate. Trite. Even condescending. How do you encourage someone who is beginning a devastating journey into the unknown?

It takes me a few days to process what’s happening. Our friends are all struggling to process it too. As we pray, we try to remind ourselves of the truths we know. Bedrock truths that have carried us through our own grief. Truths that every Christian can hold onto. Truths that will bear the weight of our sorrow.

He Controls the World

First and foremost, God is sovereign. Nothing that happens to us is a surprise to him. Not one sparrow falls to the ground apart from the Father’s will (Matthew 10:29). On the contrary, everything that we face has been put there with a purpose. We can trust that it is the best for us. And hard as it is to understand, the struggles that land on our doorstep are also for the good of our family, for our friends, for everyone we love, if they love God.

“Everything that we face has been put there with a purpose.”

Yet even as I write this, thinking that our suffering ultimately will be best for our loved ones sounds crazy. Guaranteeing it sounds impossible. But the God of the universe, who keeps the earth spinning on its axis, who tells the ocean to come this far and no farther (Job 38:11), who commands the wind and the waves (Mark 4:41), who clothes the lilies of the field (Matthew 6:28–30), and who has numbered the hairs on our head (Luke 12:7) can ensure that all things work together for good for those who love him (Romans 8:28).

God loves us. He watched his Son die a horrible death, separated from him in his last hours, so that we would never be separated from him. He wants to be with us, to take care of us, and to give us good gifts. How could he, who did not spare his own Son, not give us all things (Romans 8:32)?

He Walks with Us

God has numbered our days. All the days ordained for us were written in his book before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:16). Nothing can cut short our lives. No one will live one second less than God determined before the foundation of the world.

God walks with us every minute of our lives. Jesus says, “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). God says to Joshua, “No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you” (Joshua 1:5). When we walk through the rivers, they will not overwhelm us, because the Lord walks through them with us (Isaiah 43:2).

We never drink the bitter cup or endure any pain without him.

He Will Come Through

“We never drink the bitter cup or endure any pain without him.”

Christ is with us and will give us the comfort and strength we need each day. As Deuteronomy 33:25 assures us, “As your days, so shall your strength be.”

Octavius Winslow, a preacher in England in the 1800’s, reminds us that God gives us more than we need in our hour of suffering. He says, “Has not the Lord always been better than all your troubling anticipations, quelling your fears, reassuring your doubting mind, and hearing you gently and safely through the hour of suffering which you dreaded? Then trust him now! Never, never will he forsake you!”

Yet despite God’s past faithfulness, one of our biggest concerns is whether the Lord will be with us in future trials. John Ross MacDuff, a Scottish contemporary of Winslow, understands this fear. He says,

God does not give grace till the hour of trial comes. But when it does come, the amount of grace and the nature of the special grace required is vouchsafed. My soul, do not dwell with painful apprehension on the future. Do not anticipate coming sorrows; perplexing thyself with the grace needed for future emergencies; tomorrow will bring its promised grace along with tomorrow’s trials . . . and the strength which the hour of trial brings often makes the Christian a wonder to himself!

No Matter What Happens

We don’t need to understand now how we will face the future. God will give us all we need every day we have breath. And when we breathe our last on earth, the Lord will bring us safely to heaven so that we can enjoy him forever.

“We don’t need to understand now how we will face the future.”

One day our eyes will close in death and open to the breathtaking reality that we are in the presence of our Savior. We will feel more alive, more vibrant, more energetic, and more joyful than we ever have on earth. The God whom we have known but never seen will be before us. We will behold his glory with our own eyes, with no distortion or filter. Our souls will be completely at rest and at peace, filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. It will be glorious. That is our hope. Our promise. Our anchor.

These are the truths we as Christians base our lives on. They are sure and unchanging promises, guaranteed by the One who holds the universe. No matter what happens, we will never walk alone.

Vaneetha Rendall Risner is a freelance writer and a regular contributor to Desiring God. She blogs at danceintherain.com, although she doesn’t like rain and has no sense of rhythm. Vaneetha is married to Joel and has two daughters, Katie and Kristi. She and Joel live in Raleigh, North Carolina. Vaneetha is the author of the book The Scars That Have Shaped Me: How God Meets Us in Suffering.

Posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/when-the-future-feels-impossible

The Thorn

The Thorn
by Martha Snell Nicholson

I stood a mendicant of God before His royal throne
And begged him for one priceless gift, which I could call my own.
I took the gift from out His hand, but as I would depart
I cried, “But Lord this is a thorn and it has pierced my heart.
This is a strange, a hurtful gift, which Thou hast given me.”
He said, “My child, I give good gifts and gave My best to thee.”
I took it home and though at first the cruel thorn hurt sore,
As long years passed I learned at last to love it more and more.
I learned He never gives a thorn without this added grace,
He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil which hides His face.

Thank God We Do/Don't Know the Future

Article by Tim Challies

There are occasions in life in which we would all like to know the future. We come to times of sorrow and wonder when our tears will be dried, times of pain and wonder when we will be healed, times of uncertainty and wonder when we will gain confidence. In such moments we may wish we could elevate our gaze beyond the present moment to see into the future. And we know that it would be within the power of God to reveal it to us.

As Christians we have confidence that there is nothing—not one thing in all of time or space—that is beyond the knowledge of God. He knows all that was, is, and ever would, could, or will be. God knows the past because he existed omnisciently and omnipresently in every moment and part of it. God knows the future because he holds the future. He knew the position of every atom at the moment he brought it into being and he knows the position of every atom the day he will bring it all to a close. His knowledge of the future is every bit as extensive and intimate as his knowledge of the present and past. He is the one who “declares the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’” (Isaiah 46:10).

Because God knows the future in exhaustive detail, he could have chosen to reveal the future in exhaustive detail. He could tell you and me about every event that will befall us, every blessing we will receive, every trial we will endure. But he hasn’t. And I am grateful.

I am grateful we don’t know the future. While our desire to know what will come is understandable, it is not wise. If we knew the future in detail, it would undoubtedly hinder us, paralyze us, destroy us. Imagine knowing the day your child is going to die and how that knowledge would change your relationship with her. Knowing she has a short life you’d be tempted to idolize her (“I only have a few months left!”), while knowing she has a long life you’d be tempted to neglect her (“We have many years left together!”). Imagine knowing the moment your life will end and all you might do to try to avoid that moment, that place, that situation. Imagine knowing the results of a vote before the ballots were collected or knowing the score on an exam before a word was written. Spend a few minutes imagining the impossibility of that life and you’ll conclude it is an expression of divine wisdom that God withholds the future from us.

Yet just as I’m grateful we don’t know the future, I’m grateful we do know the future. In God’s wisdom he has chosen to give us some detail. Particularly, he has chosen to tell us about what comes last and about what comes after that. He tells us that at an unspecified time in the future, a time known only to God, Jesus Christ will return to this earth and bring history to an end. He will separate the people who have believed his gospel from those who have not. Those who have rejected him will be cast out forever; those who have believed in him will be with him forever in perfected bodies on a perfected earth. That is the future God reveals to us and it is enough. It is enough to give us confidence that our sorrows will come to an end and our tears will be dried, that the afflictions we encounter are but “light and momentary,” that the uncertainty we face will be replaced by wonder at what God has accomplished in and through us for his own glory.

Until that great day, we hold fast to what God has made clear about the future. Until that great day, we continue to look in faith to Jesus Christ. Until that great day, we cling to the many powerful promises God has given us. Our confidence is not in knowing the future, but in knowing the one who holds the future.

Article posted at: https://www.challies.com/articles/thank-god-we-dodont-know-the-future/