“And not one of them falls to the ground apart from Your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered”  Matthew 10:29,30

“When you pray say…..Your will be done….Give us day by day our daily bread…”  Luke 11:2,3

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”  Romans 8:28

Life!  We often here many descriptions or characteristics concerning it and the things that happen in it; such as:  Stuff (or a different word) happens, Don’t sweat the small stuff, Everything happens for a reason, Life’s too short, and I could continue ad nauseam.

Yet obviously life and living is, and thus things do happen as we go about the process of living.  Some things may seem small, others are exceedingly large and impactful.  Some things are wondrously joyous while others are distressingly tragic (or seem that way).  The age old question but just as relevant today is; where is God in each and all of this; and how do we know?

Alas, in a few score of words or many pages (don’t worry this will not be the case) of dissertation, I have neither the depth of wisdom nor skill of articulation to completely answer such a far reaching conundrum.  Yet I do believe that there is a place we can look and along with prayer and faithfulness receive an answer through revelation worthy of bringing us peace and blessing as we go through life’s journey.

So let’s start with the conceptual question about whether God is some sort of all powerful but aloof and distant God who starts things in motion and then stands back and passively sees where it goes.  Or is He a God who is constantly with us at each moment, looking to guide and nurture us? Which is he?  I can think of no better place to start, reference to use then scripture and the words of Christ.  When Jesus teaches us about prayer I focus in first on the request for daily bread.  The prayer and its petition make it clear that God is supplying our day by day request.  It would also appear that lends context to the point that we’re to be forgiving others constantly, to include daily and that we want Our Father’s will to be done on a continuous basis.  Additionally, as Jesus is teaching about worry, He points out that the Father knows of our specific needs and He will supply them.  He uses the illustration of how God provides food constantly for the birds of the air.  Therefore, we should not be concerned about tomorrow.  Jesus makes it very clear that Our Heavenly Father is the God of this day and every day down to the very moment.

Okay, what about big stuff versus small stuff; what does God care about?  Again, let’s look at scripture.  Now mind you, to another sparrow, a sparrow may be an important valuable bird but back in Jesus’ day as in ours, the sparrow is not particularly regarded as a rare or immensely valuable bird.  Yet Jesus declares that each sparrow is known by the Father and not one will fall to the ground unless the Father wills it.  That’s when Jesus goes on to further say that each one of our hairs is numbered again seeming to illustrate that there is not an aspect of His creation, you and I, that is outside of His knowledge or His plan (I do wish He’d decide to keep a few more of my numbered hairs on my head but that of course is up to Him).

Sure, God is with us daily and nothing about me is too small to be of His consideration.  So what do I do with that, you may ask.  Great question.  For I’ve heard two competing extremes as I ponder the things that happen in my life.  For example, let’s say that my car breaks down.  There are some who would say, that is a completely earthly happening and God has really nothing to do with that.  On the other hand there are those would say that God not only planned that, but because I was in the process of searching for a house to buy and the car broke down right in front of house for sale; that God obviously is telling me that this is the house He has planned for me so I better go make an offer on it and start measuring for curtains.  What should my faithful response be?  I think we can look to a couple of examples for our answer.

Jesus Christ was completely human and completely God in the same person, the same existence.  So in His garden of Gethsemane experience the Spirit knew what God’s plan was but the flesh was weak in wanting to carry it out.  So Jesus prayed.  And His prayer was twofold; please don’t make me go through this if you can, but more than that Thy will be done.  Now He prayed that once and returned to the disciples, one wonders from the flesh aspect if He, not seeing in soldiers, wanted to say, yup God must be letting me go; let’s get the heck outta hear.  But being perfect in obedience and faith, Jesus stayed and prayed again until the Father’s will was known by the betrayal of Judas and Jesus’ arrest.  Likewise, Paul had written about how long he had desired to visit the believers in Rome and minister unto them, yet he had been prevented.  The prevention was not man’s doing, but it was not the Will of God that Paul go.  Paul acknowledges that his finally being able to visit Rome was because it was the Will of God that he do so at that particular time.

So in the earlier example, is my car breaking down an aspect of God’s plan?  In faith I would definitely believe so.  However, like Jesus in the garden and Paul wanting to visit Rome, I first have to be open to the Will of God and not jump to my own conclusions about why my car broke down where it did.  It may be God’s will that I meet the wrecker driver who is contemplating suicide and we talk and I pray for him, helping him to feel love.  Maybe breaking down there kept me from the person who ran the stop sign in the next intersection who would have done me great harm.  Maybe I am destined to own the house which I broke down in front of.  But if I am not humble and believe I can discern God’s Will perfectly and that it is that I am to buy that house.  I may march up to the door wanting to make an offer on the house only to find that the house is already under contract to be sold to someone else.  I may demand that the contract be broken because God has ordained that the house be sold to me.  I may scream that even louder as the police officers forcibly remove from the property.  What I don’t realize I have done is supplanted my will in place of God’s Will.

Thus in faith let us understand that daily, hourly, in fact every moment; God has a plan for us and that plan is perfect.  Yet let us equally understand that it is His plan and we must be humble in subordinating our will to His Will.  As Jesus showed us, we can make requests but a part of that request must be the understanding that we want our Heavenly Father’s Will to be done because it is indeed better for us and for all when His Will is accomplished.  Our peace and joy comes from not merely the specific revelation of what that will is but the true fact that He will part the deepest sea; crumble any fortress, defeat any army, overcome any and every obstacle to bring that plan to its and our blessed fruition.

Our Most Gracious Heavenly Father, we are thankful and humbled that You, the Creator of all things would love us enough to devise a perfect plan for our lives and make it Your Will to carry it out.  Forgive us Most Merciful Father when we live as if no plan exists or try to substitute our will for Yours.  Pour out Your Spirit of Strength and Peace on us to give us the strength to perfectly believe and be patient upon You and the peace to know You will act and Your plan and actions are perfect.  That in seeing our experience through the eyes of faith, we may give constant praise and glory to Your Most Holy Name.  We pray in the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen