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Forest for the Trees

             he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. (Ephesians 1:9-10)

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)

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[i] have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

OK, this time I’m dealing with one part of this passage: “He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure.” Yes, ultimately this refers to Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. I agree. But the first point I want to make using this passage today is that God’s will is often mysterious to us. We don’t understand why this or that happened, this or that candidate won, traffic is slowed to “parking lot” on a major throughway, or someone dies. Life is often a conundrum.

And when God does something, we may throw up our hands in exasperation. Why did He do that? How could He allow this? But Scripture teaches us that God’s ways are higher than ours. He can use bad things to produce good things. What we consider bad, He may know to be good because He can see the forest for the trees. 

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