One hears the notion from time to time that if you love the Lord and serve him faithfully, trouble will stay away from your door.

You’ll always have troubles


I don’t know about you, but in the lives I have observed, I have not found that to be true. In fact, many times it seems that God’s people catch the most grief. Scripture, on more than one occasion, poses the question: “Why do the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer?”


Like the food on your grocer’s shelves, trouble comes in all sizes and varieties: big troubles and small troubles, troubles that seemingly won’t quit, and troubles that come out of nowhere and hit you like a truck. Sometimes it’s a crippling and debilitating illness. Sometimes it’s financial woes. Sometimes it’s family stress with a child or a spouse. Sometimes it’s the loss of someone you love.


God has a plan for you


Especially in those times of trouble, God’s promise that he has a plan for you (Jeremiah 29:11) is precious.


God’s plans for you began even before the foundations of the universe were laid. The apostle Paul writes, “For [God] chose us in [Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” (Ephesians 1:4,5).


Think of it! God knew from eternity precisely when and where you would be born, who your parents would be, your DNA. It was all part of his plan. Knowing your sin, he provided a Savior, Jesus, to be your substitute in keeping all the law and also in dying guilty of all your sin. Yes, Jesus was thinking of you in love as he hung on the cross. He planned all of this so that you could be free from death and live forever with him. He chose you to be adopted into his family through the work of the Holy Spirit when he brought you to faith.


Your troubles are part of his plan


Are your troubles also part of his plan? Yes. Again, Paul writes, “. . . in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).