Never a Panic in Heaven

by Janet Chester Bly

Which of these  statements do you most relate to?

What I see is all there is. I’m governed by chance, ruled by fate. Mine is a bleak, empty existence, leading nowhere. My life is governed by my good choices and happy thoughts. We’re ruled by fearsome forces who can attack at any moment. Or I believe in a loving, powerful God who has a benevolent plan for the world, and for me, and the power to see it through.

Charlie Shedd wrote, “Even when things seem to the contrary, I believe (God’s) universe and my life in it are unfolding as they should, and everything is on schedule.”

Everything’s on schedule? That smacks of a celestial plan. But, why not? We ourselves are great planners. Where did that come from, if we’re born into a chancy, random world?

A look around makes plain that God’s will is largely ignored everywhere. The result is pain and violence, mystery and confusion, atrocity and death. A sovereign planner must be greater than ambitious rulers, the torrents of nature, and plotters of evil. Otherwise, where is our hope? To whom can we appeal?

The eyes of faith can detect order breaking through even the sudden outbursts of events. There’s a flow to history. A bigger plan at play. A serious study of the Bible reveals it, with an outline of God’s divine blueprint, his design.

Everything’s on schedule. Do you believe it? Such a statement recognizes someone in control beyond ourselves and the momentary headlines.

“From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.” (Acts 17:26)

You and I have been chosen to live in such a time as this. Ask God for courage to embrace your appointed tasks each day. And when you’re troubled, say, “Even so, I trust you, Lord. This, too, is part of your plan.”

Janet Chester Bly

Janet Chester Bly is a city girl with a country heart. She doesn’t corral horses or mow her own lawn. “I’m no womba woman,” she says, “but I love to write about them.” She followed her husband, award-winning western author Stephen Bly, to the Idaho mountaintop village of Winchester to write books and minister to a small church. When she lost him, she stayed. Janet has authored, and co-authored with Stephen, thirty-four contemporary and historical fiction and inspirational and family-themed nonfiction books. He also published more than 100 books of his own.

This article was adapted from her book, Awakening Your Sense of Wonder / Discovering God in the Ordinary. Her most recent release is Beneath a Camperdown Elm, Book 3, Trails of Reba Cahill contemporary western romance series, with a zing of mystery. More about Janet at www.blybooks.com.