Be Encouraged about the Future

I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” (Daniel 4:34-35)  
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​As we look out at the political landscape and what we see going on in the world, it can be easy to become discouraged or frustrated or concerned about our children’s future.  What will the world be like in twenty or forty years?  What kind of world will our grandchildren grow up in?  However, regardless of what the world will be like in forty years, we can be sure it will be just as God intends it to be.  In Daniel 4 we read this: “At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’ (vv.34-35).  God does “according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.”  Although what we see happening in the world may surprise us or shock us or even frustrate us, none of it surprises, shocks, or frustrates God.  All of world history, all of U.S. history and politics, is moving just as God desires it, just as he planned and foreordained it.  We may not know what God is doing or why he does the things he does, but here is what we do know—we know God is sovereign, trustworthy, good, and wise.  Therefore, we can know with absolute certainty that everything we see happening in the world—Covid19, the election of Joe Biden, social unrest, political turmoil—is all for a wise and good reason.  Likely, Joseph struggled to understand why his brothers would sell him into slavery which ultimately landed him in a dirty, damp, flea-infested prison (Gen. 37).  But had Joseph not been sold into slavery, he could not have saved his family from starvation.  And had he not saved his family from starvation, they would not have become enslaved in Egypt.  Had they not become slaves in Egypt, there never would have been an exodus.  And if no exodus, then no Mt. Sinai, and if no Mt. Sinai, then no Law, and if no Law, then no nation of Israel, and if no nation of Israel, then no King David, and if no King David, then no Messiah, and if no Messiah, then no cross, and if no cross, then no salvation, and if no salvation, then I would not be trying this Daily Thought and you would not be reading it.  And all of this because of one…single…coat.  There is always a good and wise reason for everything God does.