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July 6 Today’s Reading: Proverbs 16-19

“The Lord hath made all things for himself.”

Proverbs 16:4

 

Nothing is more delightful and nothing more comforting to God’s saints in this world than the realization that all things are under the absolute control of our great and glorious God. And nothing inspires us to bear our trials and troubles, sicknesses, sorrows, and bereavements here with patience like the fact that all things are for the glory of our God.

 

Making Himself a Name

The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.” — I do not presently see what God is doing in all things; but I am assured that in all things the Lord is making for himself an everlasting and a glorious name. Isaiah tells us that the Lord God led Israel “by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them;” and he did so “to make himself an everlasting name.” He “led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble, as a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused him to rest: so didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name” (Isaiah 63:12-14).

 

All Things

In everything that is, has been, or shall hereafter be the Lord our God is making himself an everlasting and glorious name. He who raised up Pharaoh and cast him down in the Red Sea, for the glory of his own great name, brings all things to pass exactly as he has purposed for the everlasting praise and glory of his great name. — All things are for God.

            Frequently, people point to specific things and say, “How can that bring glory to God?” Unbelieving people point to sickness, war, famine, pestilence, crimes, and other evils, and say, “If there is a God in heaven, how can these things be?” Once, I even heard a preacher say, after considering a great disaster, “God has a lot of things to answer for.” What a horrible statement! The very thought of man calling God Almighty to the bar of human judgment is incredibly blasphemous!

            I readily acknowledge that I do not see and cannot explain how isolated events, considered by themselves will bring glory to God. But I do understand what God says in his Word; and I rejoice to believe him. Somehow, when everything that must be has been, when all the purpose of our great God has been perfectly fulfilled, everything will render praise and honor to him. — “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen (Romans 11:36).

 

Divine Providence

In Ephesians l:10-11 the Holy Spirit informs us that all things are disposed of by God in time according to his own purpose of grace in eternity in divine predestination. Everything that comes to pass in time was predestinated by God in eternity, and is brought to pass according to God’s eternal purpose of grace for the salvation of his elect and the glory of his own great name. Happy is that soul which has learned to trust and rests in the purpose and providence of God. All things come to pass exactly according to the eternal purpose of our God for the glory of our God.

 


 

 

 

Don Fortner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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