Since God is at work in all things, it is good for us to fear God in all things.
1. God is at work in both the good days and the bad days (13-14).
“There is a certain train or course of events, by the providence of God, falling to every one of us during our life in this world. And that is our lot, as being allotted to us by the sovereign God. . . In that train or course of events, some fall out, cross to us, and against the grain; and these make the crook in our lot. While we are here, there will be cross events, as well as agreeable ones, in our lot and condition. Sometimes things are softly and agreeably gliding on; but, by and by, there is some incident which alters that course, grates us, and pains us. … Everybody’s lot in this world has some crook in it. … There is no perfection here, no lot out of heaven without a crook.” —Thomas Boston, The Crook in the Lot
“We cannot change what God has done unless and until God wants to change it. We are under the power of the sovereign and omnipotent ruler of the entire universe. We do not have the power to edit his plan for our lives.” —Phillip Ryken
2. God alone determines the number of days we have to live (15-8).
“To fear God is to revere God. It is to know that he is God, and we are not. It is to hold him in awe for his majestic beauty. It is to have respect for his mighty and awesome power. Having the true and proper fear of God will help us not to be self-righteous. We will know that God sees us as we really are, and this will teach us not to pretend to be something we are not. The fear of God will also keep us from living a wicked life, because when we understand his holiness, the last thing we will want to do is fall under his judgment.” —Philip Ryken
APPLICATION:
- If you could change anything in your life right now that God has ordained, would you do it?