“The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord;
he turns it wherever he will.
Every way of a man is right in his own eyes,
but the Lord weighs the heart.
“No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel
can avail against the Lord.” Proverbs 21:1-2,30
“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” “For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?” “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Job 42:2; Isaiah 14:7; Romans 8:28
Mesmerizing was the predawn sky, grey heaps moving east at a steady clip to meet voluminous clouds racing from the south to converge in one dark ominous accumulation. Distinct masses, differing directions, yet one Ruler converging all into His flow of good purpose.
In a time of uncertainty, uneasy adjustment to what is a tenuous normal, there is much combatting without and within. Around us, serious voices drone, alarming with statistics and prescribing certain behaviors, while others warn against anxiety over what-ifs whose numbers change daily. Answers assuage some questions, but invite others. What is the bigger picture? Can we weigh all factors? Or is every decision driven as its own cloud bank on course to combat other roiling concerns?
Within, we wonder what to believe of conflicting reports, how to respond to sober facts and projections floated with minimal context or comparison. Our emotions can be whiplashed between fear and faith, planning and waiting, practical protection and preserving loving care for our neighbors. How do we best love behind masks? How should we spend our time during isolation? Jesus never retreated from the fray, except to move on to another place of ministry. He moved in the flow of His Father’s timing and will. His work was always the perfect, all-encompassing convergence of spiritual and physical. (John 4:34; 7:6; 10:39-40; 17:4)
To gain true perspective of combatting forces, seen and unseen, we must recede from the damp of the clouds, step away from the press of the moment, and watch the One who orchestrates every motion to fulfill His good plans in the big broad world, in His church, and in our hearts. He is doing something magnificent and more than we can imagine as He conducts His symphony of science, medicine, economies, governments, and the unseen but active spiritual world. God alone knows and superintends all things physiological and institutional. He rules cognitive reason and medical research, financial markets and civil rights and the human heart. What to us is conflict, He resolves in harmonious convergence of divine purpose, and is glorified in the doing. Are we watching? (Habakkuk 1:5; Ephesians 6:12)
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10
Will we resist the fear- and frustration-driven urge to combat in our trials, and choose instead to anticipate the Lord’s exalted triumph over all?
Sovereign Father, keep me wondering and astounded at Your supernatural hand in all that transpires in the natural world, however disheartening or unnerving. To You belong the strongest trust and highest praise.
As the rain and snow 