I love it when things are going as planned! Isn’t it just the best? Smooth sailing feels amazing! The sun is shining, the birds are singing and all is right with the world.

Until it’s not. 

So often, I’ve got a bee in my bonnet, so to speak. A laundry list of things that aren’t quite going according to my plan, or at least what I had hoped for by now. Some are rather small annoyances that upset my normal and take time and energy away from what I perceive to be more deserving things. Others are unimaginably difficult to solve, or to trust that they will ever change. 

Is God really at work in those places too?

More often than I care to admit, worry and fear begin to creep up on me and my mind is filled with all the ways that I would work each situation out. And then something happens that reminds me that I have no power to roll out my plans, and that I truly am at the mercy of the Lord, the only One who is worthy of my full trust. He will never fail! He sees what I don’t and holds together what I can’t.

It’s a long, hard lesson of letting go and trusting the Lord, a lesson I seem to be taking a lifetime to learn. I may not be able to predict the outcome of all the things that are weighing on me, but I know that the God of the Ages, the One who always keeps His promises, is faithful. From the beginning of time, His plan of redemption has been unfolding throughout history. 

The Apostle Paul shared what is believed to be the first Christian creed in 1 Corinthians 15 — 

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…” 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (NIV)

Why do we trust that God is at work, even now? Why do we have hope for transformation, a spark of life in places that otherwise seem cold and dark? 

Because of Jesus!

We have a God who came near, the Word made flesh who dwelt among us. He is Emmanuel, God With Us; the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, full of grace and truth (John 1), the Messiah who fulfills the promise of salvation held onto for generations!

It may not be a quick answer to prayer, but rest assured that God is at work in those unexpected places, and He is faithful!

Let these words echo in our hearts this Easter weekend:

The Lord is good, and His love endures forever, and His faithfulness continues to all generations (Psalm 100:5).