God Knows

‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11 (NASB) 

Like us, our counselee's need to hear and want to hear that God knows what He is doing, even when it all looks muddy. They (and we) need to be encouraged to have a heart of faith that is focused on trusting Him for the results of a given situation, even though it may look hopeless. We need to remind them of Who God is especially when He answers prayer in a most unexpected way!

Jerry Bridges says this in Trusting God: "If there is a single event in all of the universe that can occur outside of God’s sovereign control, then we cannot trust Him. His love may be infinite, but if His power is limited and His purpose can be thwarted, we cannot trust Him."

Faith and trust go hand in hand. When it comes down to it, we either believe God is sovereign or we don't. We believe He is in control of the uncontrollable or we don't. We believe He is all powerful, or we don't.

God does not move according to our time table and He is only accountable to Himself for His actions. He does not owe us and is not beholden to us. When God moves in most unexpected ways it is important that we remember we are the servants of the Most High God, not the other way around.  God is on the throne. God is sovereign, and all that comes to pass will be an unfolding of His plan, determined before the foundations of the world were set in place.

God's sovereignty is never subject to the "free will" of man. (A person who is not Reformed in their  theological background may not understand this point.) This does not mean that we blame God when bad things happen, it means that we accept He is sovereign over every aspect of our lives. We have no right to blame God for His activity in our lives for we are His possession, bought with the blood of Christ.

A final thought from Trusting God:  "The sovereignty of God is often questioned because man does not understand what God is doing. Because He does not act or think as we think He should, we conclude He cannot act as we think He would.”