“What she does not see with the eyes of her heart is that in all her bitter experiences, God is plotting for her glory. This is true of all God’s children.
In the darkest of our times, God is plotting for our glory.”
John Piper
God is plotting for our glory.
I’ve been sloooooooowly reading A Sweet & Bitter Providence by John Piper. Using the book of Ruth as a backdrop, Piper carefully explores God’s sovereignty. I started reading it about a month ago and even though it’s only 160 pages including the index, it is not a quick read.
I’m currently on chapter two. Yes, the girl who reads 100 nonfiction books a year has taken a month to read one chapter of one short book. Here’s why … I can relate to Naomi right now. I know what bitterness is. I understand what it is to look around and be certain God is in control but also wonder why He is allowing my circumstances.
And, if I’m guessing correctly, you do too.
That’s the thing, isn’t it? We live in the tension between the trusting sovereignty and goodness the God and the reality of life in a broken and sinful world … and sometimes {most of the time?} we don’t know how to reconcile it all.
So, we land on one side or the other. We may even vacillate between the two, depending on the day or what else is going on. But we have a hard time letting both coexist in our hearts and minds together.
But they both are true. God is sovereign and good AND our world is fallen and broken.
So the challenge for us is learning to trust God’s goodness even in our most bitter experiences.
When husbands say, “I don’t love you anymore.”
When doctors say, “There’s nothing more we can do.”
When children say, “I don’t believe in God.”
When jobs are eliminated.
When parents die too soon.
When plans fall apart and dreams slip away.
When churches don’t love the way they should.
When planes crash into buildings.
When children are sold for less than the price of a pair of sneakers.
When life is hard …
Because life IS hard.
We don’t always know what to do … but that’s okay. We don’t have to know how to make sense of the sorrow or how to navigate the needs. We have to know this:
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.Habakkuk 3:17-19, emphasis added
Sometimes it will all fall apart. Sometimes nothing will make sense. Sometimes there won’t be an easy answer. But even then, we can know God is good. He is faithful and He is near.
Our job isn’t to keep it all together. His is.
And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:17, emphasis added
Rest there, in that truth, that even in the darkest nights, even in the bitterest days, the God of all creation is plotting for your glory.
xoxo,
Teri Lynne
Our job isn't to hold it all together ... His is! Click To TweetRecommended Reading:
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A Sweet & Bitter Providence: Sex, Race, and the Sovereignty of God || John Piper
When God Allows What He Could Prevent || blog post by Kate Battistelli
My Journey through Grief and Loss || a series of blog posts by Stacey Thacker
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