“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him,. . .” Roman 8:28 (NIV)
The ". . ." in the verse above are very important to complete the meaning. The phrase is "who have been called according to His purpose".
To be called according to his purpose is to live in His perfect will. But given that I am created in His image, I can decide to or not to yield. Many times, stupidly, I wrestled against Him and insisted to have my own way. The Lord permits, but I did myself a disfavor; I was not allowing God to work for the good of me.
God's perfect is unchangeable. But He allows me to function in His permissive will. Either way, He wants to achieve His divine purpose in my life. The difference is that the formal produces better results and in a shorter time, while the later takes me through an excursion to reach the final point.
It has to do with the wrong concept of wrestling with God. I must remind myself never to wrestle with Him. When Jacob did that, God put him out of joint(Genesis 32:24-25). Jacob was still blessed, but he limped for the rest of his life.
Instead, I must learn to wrestle for God. I must wrestle against the temptations and distractions of this world so that I can be in His perfect will. If I chose not to submit to His perfect will, it will be in this wrestling arena that God will use His permissive will to reveal His perfect will. But, if I persevere and surrender to Him, I triumph for His glory.
We can always live in His perfect will. After all, we are "more than conquerors through Him who loves us" (Romans 8:37 NIV).
To live in His permissive will or perfect will? It is our choice!
God bless.
Steven
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