Sometimes, in the storms of life or even in the everyday hustle and bustle of routines, we may have a tendency to forget that God is still working out His plan. This week, in the midst of breathing treatments and remembering to take medications at the right time and adequately spaced from other meds, I got so preoccupied with my illness that God has been there, but I was not paying a lot of attention to what He has been doing in my life. This morning when I awakened for the first time in over a week without coughing, I was reminded of His great power and His control over all. It’s not that I forgot to give God thanks. I did that. I acknowledge Him every day, but my priority has been on getting better and breathing. And it’s not that my priority is bad…it’s just not the most important thing in my life. That would be God…the God who made me and everything else.

It’s hard for our finite minds to conceive of God, an omnipotent and loving God who was there before the mountains were even formed. Because we have a beginning on our birthday and an ending on the day we die, we seem to try to put everything into that same box. Long before I recognized that there is a God who created and sustains life, God was there. He didn’t need me to acknowledge Him in order to be. He just was and is.

Today in my devotional, I read about the destruction of Babylon, part of God’s plan. God used Babylon to judge the sins of many nations, including Judah. When His plan was completed, He sent Persia against Babylon and Babylon ceased to exist. I don’t pretend to understand how God raises up and destroys world powers, but I do know that He is in control. In this election season, when the world seems to be rocking and pivoting to hear all of the words of the latest candidates, we need to be mindful of the fact that no one gets into power without God’s allowing it and no one stays in power without God’s blessing. We may not like the current administration (I don’t; I think it is one of the most evil ones we have ever had), but God can use the leadership to speak to a nation that needs to repent. It’s not the words that leaders say that give us insight into what their motivations are. It is their actions, their deeds. If we have a leader who lies and is greedy, then can we not learn that this is the condition of the heart of our nation? Fretting about the election will not put your guy in office; God does. If the last election was fraudulent, God allowed it to happen. I am not saying that God controls every last part of every election, but I am saying that if He wants to, He can. We have to allow God to be God, of our lives (including our health) and of our out-of-control world.

What do we do as Christians when we see what is happening on college campuses? What do we do when we see such anti-Semitic fervor in a nation that has been an ally of Israel for decades? We pray! God is right there watching all of this roll out and He is not caught by surprise or wringing His hands in anguish. He has a plan, a plan to restore people to Him, and He is working out His plan little by little. We may not see it, but it is happening. Like awakening this morning and breathing more freely, the work has been going on but I didn’t see the evidence of it until I could take a breath without gasping. Likewise, one day we will see the evidence of God’s work in our world, in our nation, in our families and in ourselves. We have to hold on and continue to pray. And when we are praying, our prayer should be that God’s will be done, in Israel and in all of the world. What God has said will come to pass. He is the everlasting Father who spoke the world into existence. Nothing is too hard for Him!