“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” — Isaiah 55:9
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Have you ever watched a chess match involving true experts? For most of it, chess novices like me are simply confused, wondering why the players made the moves they did at the times they did. And then all of a sudden, with a couple simple moves, everything comes together. The experts’ plans are revealed, they work to a T to force the opponent into a corner, and the match ends in a checkmate.
I marvel at chess players who can do what I’ve described above. It’s almost like they’re thinking on a completely different cognitive level than I am, like I see in a mirror dimly while the experts comprehend completely the full scope of the match.
Often, I’m left with a similar feeling when I consider God’s ways and the accomplishment of His perfect purposes in my life and in the world. A pastor once said, “God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.”
We’re often left with doubts about our futures and the future of the world, or questions about God’s purposes in certain events that play out in our lives. Why didn’t I get that job? Why did my car break down on the way to my final exam? Why did my grandfather die of cancer?
Some people are confronted with questions like this and blame God. May it not be so with you. There is true evil in the world, like cancer, due to our sin and the work of our great enemy the devil, and we should never minimize that. But even in the midst of the horrific depravity ever-present in this world, God is still good to His children, and He is still working to bring about His perfect purposes in His creation.
Not one of God’s promises to His people has failed. If you are in Christ, He has promised to one day bring to completion the good work that He began in you, and if you are in Christ, He has promised to wipe every tear from your eyes when Jesus returns. We can be certain of these truths because the Father has upheld His greatest promise and accomplished His greatest purpose by sending His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, for the salvation and redemption of His people. If God did even this, we can trust Him fully.
So believe this truth today: God is not the author of the evil in your life, but He has purposed even that evil for your ultimate good and His ultimate glory. Like a master chess player, God will one day bring all of these seemingly random occurrences together to accomplish His perfect purposes. There won’t be a more perfect story, and we will rejoice in Him forever.
— Kevin Mercer
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