The Comfort of God's Wisdom

I’m still tired. I was in the hospital taking care of two different children for a total of six days in the span of a week. At least… I think that’s right. It all kind of became a blur. During that time, my wife and I lost a lot of sleep. When we did sleep, it was in a lot of uncomfortable places. But God, in his infinite wisdom, sovereignly ordained that that’s where we would be. Why did he do it? I don’t totally know.

Also in God’s sovereignty, Packer had such a timely word for me this week in Knowing God. "We should not, therefore, be too taken aback when unexpected and upsetting and discouraging things happen to us now. What do they mean? Simply that God in his wisdom means to make something of us which we have no attained yet, and he is dealing with us accordingly."

God is still working on me and I’m grateful for that. He is shaping me and helping me look more like Christ. I cherish that thought even if it means I must go through hard things to be molded. We certainly saw many prayers answered quickly during our stay in the hospital. God is still active and working in the lives of his people. 

One day, we will be united with our most wise God. We will see him face to face and we will learn the purposes behind the hard things that happen to us. Until then, we as Christians have the most hope. We know there is no purposeless evil in the world. We know that there is a good and wise God working all things for our good and his glory. We can rightly make sense of all that is going on around us.

Packer leaves us with this and it is a fitting end, "Whatever further purpose a Christian’s troubles may or may not have in equipping him for future service, they will always have at least that purpose which Paul’s thorn in the flesh had: They will have been sent us to make and keep us humble, and to give us a new opportunity of showing forth the power of Christ in our mortal lives."