We may not understand why things happen the way that they do but we need to understand that everything that happens according to God’s will.
One thing here in Minnesota that we have gotten used to dealing with are mosquitoes. Every spring around the first or second week of May they will come out in droves, seeking out anything with blood. One day you won’t see any, and the next day there will be millions of them. As pesky and annoying as they are, and as much as I would like to see them all wiped off the Earth, I know that there is a reason they are here. I might not enjoy slapping mosquitoes off of my face, but I know that God created them for a purpose, because it was according to His will that they do what they do.
Look at what happened to Joseph. Because he was hated by his brothers, he was sold by them into slavery and sent to Egypt, where he eventually became a servant to Potiphar. He didn’t do anything wrong to receive this, but it happened. Rising in favor with Potiphar, he became ruler over all of Potiphar’s property. Then he was falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife of trying to lay with her. He was then put into prison for the crime he didn’t commit. Later, he became second under Pharoh over all Egypt.
All of these things happened to Joseph, and while he may not have understood at the time why these things were happening to him, God knew all the time because it was all according to His will. If Joseph hadn’t been sold into slavery many years before, his family might have perished during the famine. It was through him that his family was brought into Egypt. Joseph didn’t know years earlier when all of these things started to happen, but God knew what He was going to do. It all happened according to His will.
In John 9, we read a passage about a man who was blind.
“And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” John 9:1-3
This man had been blind since his birth; not because of sin on his part or his parent’s. It was so that people could see the miracle be performed on him and people could believe in Christ.
We might not understand everything, but we need to trust the Lord to take care of us. Everything happens according to His will.
Whether a seed comes up out of the ground and starts to grow does not have a single thing to do with how good a gardener someone is. Can you “make” a seed sprout? You can put it into the ground and water it, but can you physically force a seed to begin growing? Only God can do that.
Can you pick whether the day outside is sunny or rainy? Hot or cold? Of course not. Only God has that power.
Do you know every event that is going to happen tomorrow, or the day after that, or next week? Do you know if you will even be alive a year from now? These are things that only God can know. If it is the will of God you will go somewhere, or do this or that.
“Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.” James 4:13-15
Whatever happens in your life, or anything that you don’t understand, just remember this: the Lord’s will be done.
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 