Is there anything which lies outside the zone of God’s control?

Is He behind both painful and joyful occurrences?

I form the light and create darkness:

I make peace and create evil:

I the LORD do all these things

Isa. 45:7

I bring prosperity & create disaster’

Isa. 45:7 NIV

You don’t even know Me,

But So that everyone, from east to west,

will know that I have no god-rivals.

(Let me make it clear)

I am God, the only God there is.

I form light and create darkness,

I make harmonies and create discords.

I, God, do all these things.

Isa. 45:6-7 the message

MacDonald observes

“Evil as an act is not the direct working of God,

but the spontaneous work of a creature endowed with freedom

In the present context the contrasts are between light and its opposite, darkness;

between peace and its opposite, calamity.

What God permits, He is often said to create

God is precisely intentional about the course of our life.”

The Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord…

God turns it wherever He will

Prov. 21:1

Job knew terrorism.

What does God ask him?

‘Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?

Tell me, if you understand.

Who marked off its dimensions?

Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb?

Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place?

Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea

Have you walked in the recesses of the deep?

Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?

Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?

Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?

Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?

Will the wild ox consent to serve you?

Do you give the horse its strength?

Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom?

Does the eagle soar at your command?’

What is our God like? How do we describe Him?

Is He capable of intervening in our lives and affairs

or is it only occasionally that He does something,

but most of the time He lets things take their course?

Is God just randomly getting us out of scrapes,

or only engineering a few things,

or only occasionally orchestrating some kind of resolution?

How big is He?

Does He actually have our hairs numbered?

The tests of faith are varied and at times awkward

We’re to be transformed by the renewing of your mind’

Rom. 12:1-2

The natural bent is to be ticked off and torched by stuff that is icky

When God guided Israel from Egypt to their promised land

why didn’t He provide a fleet of stretch limousines?

When he promised Abraham he’d have enumerable offspring why

did he have to wait for 60 plus years to have a son?

Why was he allowed to watch his self effort produce the worst enemies

to his promised nation?

Why was Moses put through harsh failures?

Why was Jacob cut off from his son until he was old?

Why was Joseph put through slavery and imprisonments?

Why was Daniel after decades of faithfulness put in a den of hungry

lions in his 80s?

God moves in a mysterious way

His wonders to perform;

He plants His footsteps in the sea,

And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines

Of never-failing skill

He treasures up His bright designs,

And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,

The clouds ye so much dread

Are big with mercy, and shall break

In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

But trust Him for His grace;

Behind a frowning providence

He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,

Unfolding every hour;

The bud may have a bitter taste,

But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,

And scan his work in vain;

God is His own interpreter,

And He will make it plain.

William Cowper