Here is a question I’ve asked more than a few times, “What’s on your agenda today?” Our days are intended to be full of desires, plans, and decisions, rather than dull routines, because God made us to be ambitious. Created in His image, we look to and long for something greater. In our capacity to imagine and create, we dream and plan, we make choices and act. This is an everyday pattern even if we do not consciously think about it.
What if one makes the wrong choice or decision with good intent? Can we have any confidence in discovering the right course of action? Then there is the reality that every one of us makes bad choices out of evil intent. What confidence can we have that life is not just some grand meaningless tragedy?
God’s revelation shines a light into our darkness, and by His light we can see light (Psalm 36:9). There is a glimmer of hope! It may seem distant and elusive, but the more we investigate His light the more hopeful we become. When we gaze at His glory, only then can we rest on the soft pillow of His sovereignty.
Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.
Proverbs 19:21
“God made man with the capacity to choose, and He respects that choice”, asserts John Lennox. Yet even with all the bad choices made by people (including me) in a day or a lifetime, God’s purpose is not determined, nor is it thwarted by the choices and actions of mere men. Our evil choices deliver harm and will be judged; our good choices yield benefit and bring glory to God because He, in Himself, is the definition of “good.” God knows the end from the beginning, and He is directing history according to His plan. He has ordained that all our choices flow into what He has purposed.
No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the Lord.
Proverbs 21:30
We are stewards of the choices we have. We must confess that humanity has failed miserably in that trust. As members of God’s new humanity, we have the aim and the resource to thrive in that responsibility and overcome evil with good. And though the darkness seems so strong, we can rest confident that God’s good pleasure will be accomplished in the end.
But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal:
“The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”
2 Timothy 2:19
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