From New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional, Copyright © 2014 by Paul David Tripp
Since God writes your story, he knows what you’re facing and exactly what grace you’ll need to live his way.
Admit it: your life hasn’t worked out according to your plan. Last month didn’t work out according to your plan. Today won’t work out according to your plan. All of this is true because you aren’t the author of your story. You don’t need to read a mystery novel; your life is a mystery to you. You and I don’t have a clue what is around the next corner, let alone where we will be and what we will be doing a decade from now. But even though there is very little that we know for sure about our lives and we experience constant surprises along the way, we need not give way to panic. Yes, our lives are out of our control, but that doesn’t mean they are out of control. No, our lives are under the careful administration of the One who had the wisdom and power to be the great Author of it all.
Since God is the Author of every detail of your story, since he writes into your story every situation, location, and relationship, then he knows exactly what you’re facing and precisely what grace you need to face it in the way he has planned. You could say it this way: his sovereign control is the guarantee that you will have everything that he has promised you. His sovereign control means he knows what you need because he has planned for you everything that you’re now facing. But more needs to be said. His sovereignty is your surety because he can guarantee the delivery of his promises only in the location where he rules. Because he rules over all things at all times (since he wrote the story that includes it all), he can guarantee that you and I will have what he has promised us in the places and at the times they are needed.
Paul says it this way: “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:26–27). Paul doesn’t think of God as an “out-there and distant sovereign.” He reminds us that because God is involved with every detail of our lives, he is near. He is so near that at any moment we can reach out and touch him. This means that every grace that you and I will ever need is near and available to us as well. So reach out today. The Author is near and he has grace in his hands.
For further study and encouragement: 1 Peter 1:13–25