God Has a Plan

Nothing in your life, however confused or disconnected it may seem, lies beyond the reach of God. Even before the world existed, the Lord, in His infinite wisdom, had already determined everything that would happen in time. Paul sums up this truth in a statement that runs through the whole Bible: God works all things according to the counsel of his will (Eph 1:11). We are not talking about a God who watches history from a distance, hoping everything turns out fine. We are talking about the One who planned, created, and sustains everything that exists, from the dawning of a star to the next breath you are about to take.

This eternal plan is what theology calls the decree of God: a single, wise, and free purpose, not a collection of separate and conflicting plans. “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose” (Isa 46:10), God Himself declares through Isaiah. As for exactly how God's sovereignty relates to our real choices, faithful Christians hold different emphases. It is not necessary to settle that debate here in order to affirm what all of them agree on: nothing escapes the Lord's purpose, and yet He is never the author of sin. At the cross of Christ, the greatest crime in history took place, and at the same time everything happened according to the guilty decisions of men and according to what the disciples themselves acknowledged in prayer: those wicked hands merely did “whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place” (Acts 4:28). The mystery is not fully resolved in this life, but the comfort is clear: no human evil has ever escaped God's rule or been able to thwart His final purpose.

This same God who plans also created. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1), not out of any preexisting matter, but out of nothing, by the power of His word: “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible” (Heb 11:3). God did not create out of necessity. He was already full and perfectly happy in Himself, Father, Son, and Spirit in eternal communion. He created because He willed to, out of pure, overflowing goodness. And the work of creation does not belong to a single Person. The Father is the source from whom all things proceed; the Son is the One through whom “all things were made, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3); and the Spirit was already hovering over the waters, sharing in God's creative work (Gen 1:2).

As for exactly how the days of Genesis unfolded, Christians who equally believe in the Word of God have, throughout history, arrived at different interpretations. It is not necessary to choose one of them here in order to affirm what unites all these readings: the world is not the product of chance, human beings are a special creature made in the image of God, and everything that exists was created for the glory of the Creator. “Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made” (Isa 43:7), the Lord declares through Isaiah. Paul, for his part, sums up the destiny of all creation in a single phrase: “For from him and through him and to him are all things” (Rom 11:36).

But God's work did not end on the seventh day, like someone who winds up a clock and walks away. He continues sustaining, at every moment, everything He created. This is what theology calls providence. “In him all things hold together” (Col 1:17), Paul writes of Christ; and the author of Hebrews affirms that He is “upholding the universe by the word of his power” (Heb 1:3). If God withdrew His hand for a single instant, everything would cease to exist. It is in this same God that, as Paul declared to the Athenians, “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). He is not a distant God, watching everything from afar. He is the One who sustains even the heart beating right now.

The hardest question then arises: if God governs all things, where do evil and suffering come from? Scripture does not give us a formula capable of fully dissolving this mystery. It gives us something more solid: the certainty that God is never the author of sin and that He knows how to turn even the worst pain into good. This is what Job learned after losing everything, without ever receiving a full explanation, and it is what Paul assures every suffering Christian: “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good” (Rom 8:28). The text does not claim that pain is good in itself. It affirms something greater: God is able to use it to produce a good we cannot yet see.

The next time life feels out of control, write down on paper what weighs on your heart and hand it all over to God in prayer. Do this not because the answer will come easily, but because, whatever the path may be, you are in the hands of the same God who planned, created, and continues sustaining, with love, every moment of history.