Here’s the bottom line: if you are God’s child, your life is never, ever out of control.

Yes, vast pieces of your existence are out of your control, beyond your power to alter, but you must not conclude that your life is out of control.

It’s only when God looms hugely larger than anything you could ever face in this fallen world that your heart is able to experience peace even when you don’t understand what is happening (and you don’t have the power to solve it if you did).

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

Pathway To Peace

a poem by Paul Tripp

Before me
is a pathway
I do not know.
Before me
are valleys
I do not know.
Before me
are mountains peaks
I do not know.
Before me
are rivers
I do not know.
Before me
is darkness
I do not know.
Before me
are broken places
I do not know.
Before me
are temptations
I do not know.
Before me
are trials
I do not know.
Before me
are glories
I do not know.
Before me
are mysteries
I do not know.

What lies before me
I do not need to know,
because you go
before me.
You know
what lies ahead.
You have already
given me
everything I need
for everything
that lies ahead
that I do not know.

One thing I do know,
when I walk
that pathway,
I do not walk alone.
You are ahead
of me,
You are behind
me,
and You are
with me.

I am blessed
to be at rest
with what
I do not know.

Isaiah 43:1-7

But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
Because you are precious in my eyes,
and honored, and I love you,
I give men in return for you,
peoples in exchange for your life.
Fear not, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you.
I will say to the north, Give up,
and to the south, Do not withhold;
bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the end of the earth,
everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”

Everything under the careful rule of the risen Lord Jesus. Not only does he sit and rule at the right hand of the Father on high, but he expedites his rule for his people. He rules over all things so that his grace can finish its work in you unabated.

The promises of his grace are only as secure as the extent of his rule. His story is unstoppable. His rule is benevolent. There is grand and gracious control over every aspect of your life.

God bless,

Paul David Tripp

Reflection Questions

1. If you had unlimited power to change something in your life, what would you change and why? How have you been unable to change it, perhaps despite your best efforts, and how do you respond to being powerless in this area of life?

2. What is currently capturing your meditation? Do you spend much of your energy meditating on your problems rather than meditating on the glory of the God who has become your Father and who is always with you?

3. Do you deny the reality of your problems? In what ways are you trying to ignore, dismiss, or numb yourself to suffering and hardship? How can you embrace suffering with gospel hope?

4. What other passages or verses can you find similar to Psalm 23 or Isaiah 43? Would it be potentially helpful to compile these somewhere and run to them when your life seems to spiral out of control?

5. Who do you know in a moment of suffering or hardship right now? How can you sympathize with their situation, provide practical relief, and remind them of gospel theology?