Sunday, March 23, 2014

Devotional 108 God Overrules


"A person wills an action, an event is triggered by natural causes, or Satan shows his hand ---yet God overrules."     New King James Commentary regarding Proverbs 16:33.

Proverbs 16:33  "We may throw the dice, but the Lord determines how they will fall."

Last week  Emil de Leon won $45,000 on Wheel of Fortune. His win was so unusual that he was on the national news. Pat Sajak, the host of the show, said it was the most amazing solve in his 30 years on the show.

Emil had to solve this puzzle with only this much information:  NE_    _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ _ . The first thing that came out of his mouth was NEW BABY BUGGY. That was it! The crowd went wild and Pat Sajak had a moment of stunned silence.

Now if you google this you will find a bunch of conversation trying to explain how he could guess this with so little information. I remember immediately thinking "God gave him the answer." And this verse came to mind in Proverbs that even the throw of the dice is controlled by God.

"Can anything happen without the Lord's permission? Is it not the Most High who helps one and harms another?" Lamentations 3: 37, 38

No one can cause an event to happen if the Lord has not already  designed to use it for good and ordained the outcome to glorify His name. Failure,  success,  marriage,  divorce, unplanned children, planned children who never come, death, disability, war, peace, presidents and dictators, on and on...in it all God still rules!

Hard to grasp! But nothing comes to pass apart from God's decree. So Emil won not so much because he was a brain with letters or pure luck, but because there is a God in heaven who rules and does His pleasure in the world.

In your life He has ordained this day for your good and His glory.