When Things Don't Go According to Our Plan
We all know that some disappointments have their uses. The ruins of cherished plans are often the first steps to the true good that God has in store for us. The apostle Paul learned this when he asked God to remove the thorn in his flesh (2 Cor. 12:7–9). God, in his great and strange mercy, said no. Nationalistic Israelites also learned this in how they were waiting for the Messiah. God had something better in his plans than the immediate political supremacy of Israel over her enemies.
And that is true in your life and mine. Neither you nor I have a life perfectly attuned to the will, desires, and hopes of God. So we will inevitably face disappointment. We will watch the things we fix our hopes upon sink like stones in water.
Yet it is God’s grace to us that they do. As strange as it may seem, if we really believe the Bible, we must learn to trust that he knows what he is doing, and that his plans for us are better than whatever we have planned for ourselves. So often we cling with all our might to what we have in this world. But God has something even better prepared for his children.
If you are a child of God through new birth in Christ, the conclusion God has in mind for you is unimaginably good! As John writes in one of his letters, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Paul, also, dissolves into doxology when he thinks of what God has done and will do: “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” (Rom. 11:33).
In What Does God Want of us Anyway? Dever provides an overview of the entire Bible. This is perfect for readers seeking to grasp the big picture, how the Old Testament and New Testament relate, how the Maker of promises fulfills his promises in Christ.
Excerpt from What Does God Want of us Anyway? by Mark Dever.
