His Will Be DoneSample

Friend, God can take the flour of your failures, the sugar of your successes and the cream of your circumstances, and mix them all together in His sovereign blender to achieve His purposes through His providence. And to illustrate how this works, He placed a book called Esther within the canon of Scripture so that we would see an entire story where His name does not even appear, and no overt references of Him are made. He did this to support His truth which says:

Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself, the God and Savior of Israel. (Isaiah 45:15 NIV)

Many plans are in a man’s heart, but the counsel of the Lord will stand. (Proverbs 19:21 NASB)

The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. (Psalm 33:10-11 NIV)

God is sovereign, yes. But because He has granted freedom to us as human beings, He has to incorporate providential involvement in order to achieve His sovereignty. He will not allow our freedom to thwart His purposes, so He must stitch the freedom of humanity into His plans in such a way as to create a tapestry called destiny. This includes even using (but never condoning) sin, sinners and Satan to accomplish His sovereign purposes.

 

If you enjoyed reading about the pathways God providentially designs, learn more about Tony's book "Pathways." Simply click here.  We want to thank B&H Publishers for these excerpts from Tony Evans' book "Pathways: From Providence to Purpose, published in 2019.