During my walk with the Lord, I have often been tempted to wonder if anything I do is really important eternally. Then I am faced with a choice: I can either feel sorry for myself and give in to discouragement or I can trust God’s sovereign control over the plan He has for my life. I know God, that His plan for me is good and that He has promised this to all of us (Jeremiah 29:11 and Romans 8:28-29). And yet, fighting to trust God enough to have a willing and joyful heart in the difficult seasons and circumstances of my life has been the most reoccurring and difficult battle I have faced.
He planned each day of our lives in His Book before we were born (Ps. 139:16), yet when our lives suddenly take a spiral downward, we find ourselves tempted to doubt His goodness. Jerry Bridges, in his book Trusting God, has been very helpful to me in holding on to this truth in dark times. He says, “God in His love always wills what is best for us. In His wisdom He always knows what is best, and in His sovereignty, He has the power to bring it about.”
Are you going through things you never dreamed you would face? Maybe you are walking through the pain of wayward children or overwhelmed with the agony of watching a loved one suffer greatly. Perhaps you are struggling to accept that you are single when your heart’s desire has always been to be married. There is no end to the list of the trials we might face in this broken world, but finding grace to say, “Not my will, but Yours,” is the battle we face. Our Savior may gently whisper that we need to turn our perspective from a worldly one to an eternal one.
The Lord said the least is the greatest in His eyes and that the last shall be first (Matt. 19:30; Luke 9:48). We have to be reminded not to look at our lives in the natural way as the world does. Can we be willing and joyful to lay our lives down in the place He is calling us to today? If He has called us to it, then it is the most glorious thing we can do.
Wouldn’t our Father’s love choose what is best in terms of eternal value? Our perspective can be colored by the culture we live in and the sinful nature that still dwells within us. God’s grace will help us to find an eternal perspective.
We are grateful for the many times we are called to do things we enjoy. But when we fight to be willing, faithful and even joyful, trusting His love and His sovereign plan, even when we walk through dark days, days we wouldn’t choose, days of pain and suffering, that is a well-pleasing sacrifice that brings glory to our Lord and Savior.
When we choose to trust that His plan for our life is the best that His love could give, rather than defining our lives by what we see before us, our lives give testimony to the truth that His ways are perfect.
