God Is In The Details

We may throw the dice, but the LORD determines how they fall.

Proverbs 16:33

One of the most important truths God has woven into his Word is that he is engineering even the smallest details in order to accomplish his divine purpose in every situation. Happenings that seem random, choices and decisions that seem spontaneous and uncalculated, paths that cross in seemingly serendipitous ways—all are being ordered by the Lord: “The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives” (Psalm 37:23).

Does anything seem more random than the tossing of dice? Yet the Scripture teaches us that the Lord orders even those things that seem unplanned or uncontrolled.

Nothing—not one detail—is random. God’s Word points us to his ways: one of the psalmists says, “I will study your commandments and reflect on your ways” (Psalm 119:15). God tells us to observe his ways, to consider them and learn his ways and his well-worn paths. He tells us to become familiar with his consistent methods of dealing with situations and people. When we know his ways and recognize the underlying consistency in all his doings, we will see the divine will in the center of everything. It is his way to manage the details, to act according to an eternal plan. “O LORD, I will honor and praise your name, for you are my God. You do such wonderful things! You planned them long ago” (Isaiah 25:1). Whatever is happening in your life right now, even though it may seem as if circumstances are taking on a momentum of their own, God is acting according to a plan that has been in place since the beginning of time. It may look as if the dice have been randomly cast, but remember—the Lord determines how they fall. Through every page of Scripture, God shows us his ways. He uses everything to work out his purposes.

Father, I thank you that you are always carefully managing the details of my life. Your purpose for me always prevails, even though I am prone to forget that and make my own plans.

How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource! We go to him because we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven.

George Macdonald(1824–1905), Scottish author and minister