Knowledge in the Dark

Paul...The Know-It-All

“For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer...For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens...for I know whom I have believed...And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Taking just these few instances, the man of the world would peg Paul as a know-it-all. And after reading the latter, would add he no doubt had a screw loose. For the man under the sun believes one event happens to all the same. That it rains on the just and the unjust alike. While this is true, the the effect on each isn’t. The result is noticeably different. The same sun melts and hardens.

The wise of the world tell us we are all victims of chance, no more. But God’s enlightened elect reject the foolishness of this wisdom. We are not creatures of fate, but of faith. God rules in every area of our lives. He has a predestined plan for each of us. Some saints, I find, have a problem with the negative side of predestination, but none with the positive, as in Romans eight, twenty-eight.

Sometimes, during those seemingly senseless and unexplained trials, the head has no answer other than that there is simply no rhyme nor reason to it. But as Pascal says, “The heart has reason of which the mind knows nothing of.” May it suffice each suffering saint to know that on the flip-side of every dark and wearisome cloud, there is a silver lining. Darkness always gives way to light!