I just finished an amazing book, A Sweet and Bitter Providence by John Piper. Here is the truth I learned... In all of the setbacks of our lives, God is plotting for our joy. God is in all the strange turns. He is not just showing up after the trouble to cleanup. He is plotting and managing the course with far-reaching purposes for our good and His glory. It does not speak well of our faith if we doubt His love or if we become angry at God when He ordains pain in our lives. God is doing a 1000 things that we do not know. And they are meant for our good.
The story of Ruth shows that God is at work in the darkest of times for the good of His people. The pains of life are not exceptions to God's love for His children. They are expressions of His love. The best is yet to come because He is at work in the darkest of times. The Lord wants us to know that when we follow Him, our lives always mean more than we think they do.
In the darkest of times, rest. Our pain has a loving and wise and all-powerful purpose behind it that is better than any other view- weak God, cruel God, bumbling God, no God. To know that in His hands "this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison" (2 Corinthians 4:17) is reassuring. There is a great point in knowing that God is sovereign over the pain and pleasure of our lives.
