"From Me"

"This thing is from Me." (I Kings 12:24)                  

God cannot sin.  He cannot be tempted to sin.  Nor does He tempt anyone else to sin.          

"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man" (James 1:13).     

Of all Biblical truths, none more demand our full belief and affirmation than than this doctrine of our Lord's unimpeachable and impeccable character.  "As for God, His way is perfect" (II Samuel22:30).  A shroud of thick spiritual and moral darkness envelops our hearts if we succumb in principle or in practice to the Satanic notion that God motivates or encourages wickedness or unrighteousness.  "The righteous Lord loveth righteousness" (Psalm 11:7).   

In the mystery of His eternal purposes in the Lord Jesus Christ, however, our Heavenly Father is wise enough, involved enough, powerful enough, and loving enough to weave wickedness He did not determine into His working in the lives of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).  The cross of our Savior shines forth with the brightest light in this matter.   

"Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain" (Acts 2:23).    

Which was it?  God's "determinate counsel and foreknowledge?"  Or man's "wicked hands?"  The answer is both.  Full comprehension of such enigma is not possible for our finite minds.  We only know that our Heavenly Father foreordained the suffering redemption effected by His Son without forcing the wicked hands that pierced our Savior's innocent hands.  I refuse to waste time and mental energy in trying to figure this out.  However, I try to spend much consideration in realizing and embracing this wondrous truth that illuminates the trusting heart, namely, that God transforms the most wicked sin of history, the cross, into the most blessed reality - salvation - in the hearts of those who believe.  I then seek to apply the principle to everything in life.  Yes, if the worst thing became for us the best thing, then all other difficulties and challenges pale in comparison.   

"This thing is from Me."  By the time life gets to us, God has woven His ultimate purposes into the good, the bad, and the mundane.  As Joseph declared of his brothers' sin against him, "Ye thought evil against me.  But God meant it unto good" (Genesis 50:20).  Yes, our Father determines those things that conform to His perfectly righteous way.  He allows those things that conflict with His perfection in full confidence that He can coordinate all into His loving purposes.  I don't expect to understand how He does this, either in this life or the next.  I do, however, expect that each day will offer opportunity to remember and affirm the blessed truth of "This thing is from Me," either according to perfect determination, or coordinated allowance.   A God perfect in character and way must also be known as the God infinite in understanding and unthwartable in purpose.  "This thing is from Me" declares the Lord by His Word and His Spirit.  May the peace of such truth grace our hearts as the light of the cross illuminates every "This thing" in our lives.

"God... worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." (Ephesians 1:3; 11)