Not My Will, But God’s Will is Always Done
Christians believe that God is the Creator of all things. In His preserving wisdom and power, He continuously sustains what He has made. Not only this, but God governs everything. He is working His will through His ruling everything. Nothing is excluded from His sovereign reign.
My dear reader, if you have an inclination to protest against the good pleasure of God’s will being done with absolute all-encompassing certainty, then your protest is included in what He is doing. Does that offend you, too?
When the plagues of Egypt came, and Pharaoh found himself in the role of antagonist against the Almighty, all he had to do is repent according to your man-centered logic. This did not happen, nor could it happen because it was God hardening Pharaoh’s heart. There is no one, nor anything that can thwart the sovereign will of God from accomplishing God’s eternal purpose, executed by His providence in time and space.
True believers in Jesus Christ are happy to acknowledge the counsel of the Lord directing everything — whether they are floods, plagues, wars, pestilence, famine, etc. God is not just reacting or responding to tragedies and evil operations in the world. He governs all things for His own ends.
This is the test for each person to examine him or herself. God either governs or He is subject to the governance of another. When the devil tricked humanity, the result was human rebellion, saturated with pride. The cosmic drama of demonic anarchy was afforded an ally to add to the tension. The children of men become children of the devil. They mimic their father, the devil, with varying degrees of apery — all the while claiming to be gods (“We’re #1!”).
Jesus Christ showed us who was really God. He controlled the weather even as He chose who was in the boat. Jesus controlled the food supply and then exposed those were following Him for the free lunch. Jesus healed diverse maladies in select people, even when they were not looking for what only Jesus could give. Jesus directed demons and confounded the cleverness of those who hated Him without a cause.
There was nothing Jesus could not do, but He could not do anything that was disobedient to His Father. His lot, as a man, was perfect obedience. He was like us, yet without sin. His role as the second Adam was to bring redeemed humanity into union with God, in a manner and measure the first Adam would not and could not do. Are you reprobate, today? Praise God (don’t worry you won’t!)! Are you elect, redeemed, regenerate, today? Praise God (don’t worry, you will). This is God’s story…and you are not the author. You are not in control any more than the people outside of Noah’s Ark or inside Jesus’ boat on the Sea of Galilee.
All of creation is God’s servant and at His disposal to do with as He pleases. Whether something is animate or inanimate, physical or spiritual, rational or irrational, God will employ it according to His will and toward the end for which He has determined it. Birds go where God tells them to go, and so do men do as God made, governs, and directs them. The life breath and innumerable ways His creatures work, do so as He intends.
Satan is summoned and dispatched by Almighty God. He is cast out and bound as God sees fit. He is released and devours as God directs. Demons accost and angels gather, but all that God has created in the spiritual realm do His bidding for good or evil purposes by His design.
God’s counsel stands, regardless of one’s position or disposition. Men and devils devise their schemes, but the Lord directs their steps, even the wicked for the day of evil. No one and nothing can turn the course God has set each one on. If the heathen rage, then God laughs. The Lord God Almighty reigns (Rev 19:6).
All people, all things, and all events have their appointment from God in time and space. The believer rejoices. The unbeliever curses. For these purposes and for their eternal ends, God has made them.
It must be repeated that this knowledge, that is, the knowledge of God’s sovereignty and providential working, is grace to you, Christian. Not only has God appointed you to life, but He gives the knowledge of Himself as an element to the believer’s abundant life.
The reprobate will never join us in praising God. This is for us to know, but it is not our concern. Our concern is to praise God from whom all blessings flow. All of God’s blessings for His people are in Christ Jesus, reserved for the saints. While it is yet, today, let us receive what comes to us as God’s grace to us, for all of it works together for our good…just as God eternally willed and always intended.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
July 30, 2021
