Psalm 94:9 Does he who implanted the ear not hear?
Does he who formed the eye not see?

Very simple, irrefutable logic here! However, it’s the implications of this rhetorical question that cause people either to insist that God is a “divine watchmaker” who created the universe and “wound the stem” but then had nothing more to do with it, or else that God doesn’t exist at all. The whole issue is accountability. We don’t like to answer for our actions! However, protests are futile, and the logic in this verse is inescapable. God does nothing for no reason, and the creation of each individual is no exception. If God created me for a reason, then it should be my highest priority to find out that reason and fulfill it. That’s where it gets sticky, because we want to plot our own paths and fulfill the purposes we dream up. However, every person alive has to come to the place where they admit things haven’t turned out as they had planned, and that can be pretty depressing. Conservative commentator Dennis Prager put it this way: Unhappiness = Image – Reality, or U=I-R. In other words, unhappiness is caused by reality not matching up with the image we have created of how things should be. It follows that the way to happiness is to trust that God’s plan for our lives is a good one, and let that be the Image for which we strive. (Jeremiah 29:11) The faith to do that includes the assurance that God is indeed aware of everything that goes on, as this verse says, and trusting Him with every outcome. That’s not to say that our way is going to be easy. Jesus Himself said very clearly, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) It is trusting that God’s outcomes are good that enables us to be at peace and joyful.

This certainly applies to me as much as it does to anyone. I have had to release all sorts of plans and dreams to God, choosing to trust that His plans for me are good. There are many things about my life that I would have plotted differently, but I have to concede that I have been extremely blessed. I have a marriage that is the envy of many, and I have had a militant Buddhist twice bring people to meet me because he wanted them to “know someone who really enjoys living.” I had the huge advantage of being raised by parents whose Image (to go back to Dennis Prager’s formula) was simply serving God, which they did as missionaries. I have followed their example, and it has certainly been a path of blessing. That doesn’t mean there aren’t things I wish were different. I pray earnestly about such things every day! However, it does mean that my ultimate goal is simply to be in Christ, pleasing Him, and that doesn’t depend on things of this world. Paul put it this way: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10-11) That “somehow” doesn’t mean that he doubted it would happen, but simply that he didn’t know the details. That is my prayer as well, because “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.” (2 Timothy 1:12)

Father, thank You for Your good plans for me. Help me indeed rest, relax, and rejoice, just as You have told me to do, so that all of Your purposes for me may be fulfilled on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!