True But Fake Passages: Devotions From Time Of GraceSample

“God works in mysterious ways”

People will be telling a story about how some good fortune came to them in the strangest way and they will smile, shrug, and say appreciatively, “God certainly works in mysterious ways.” And they will be right. He does indeed, but that phrase was not drawn from Scripture.

It comes from the British poet William Cowper (pronounced “Cooper”), whose marvelous little poem appeared in England in 1774:

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.

Cowper continued with another five stanzas that found delight in God’s hidden plans that always work out for the good of his children.

Cowper was absolutely right. In the moment, God’s ways can seem frustratingly opaque.

“Why am I suffering like this?” “Why are my prayers unanswered?” “Why is my life so full of setbacks and my unbelieving neighbor’s so easy?” But all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord, and in the end we can look back and marvel at how God stitched everything together in a beautiful tapestry.

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?’” (Romans 11:33,34).