For of Him and through Him and to Him,
are all things, to whom be glory forever.
Romans 11:36 NKJ

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
(For all things originate with Him and come from Him;
all things live through Him, and all things center in
and tend to consummate and to end in Him.)
To Him be all the glory forever. Amen so be it.
Romans 11:36 Amplified Bible

All is in the palm of God's hand. Every aspect of life and relationship is simply interaction with Him. When I see the smile of the store clerk my true interaction isn't with the store clerk, it's with the Lord. And a curt word on the highway is again His touch.

It's all Him. It's all God. He uses each of these catalysts to stimulate us to relationship with Himself ....through strife, through acceptance, through what appears to be good or bad.

"The circumstances of a saint's life are ordained of God. In the life of a saint there is no such thing as chance. God by His providence brings you into circumstances that you cannot understand at all but the Spirit of God understands...All your circumstances are in the hand of God, therefore never think it strange concerning the circumstances you are in."
Oswald Chambers (My Utmost for His Highest - November 7th)

My entire universe is in His hand and there is nothing that happens outside of that place. He doesn't set me down and leave me and then come back to pick me up. Every stimulus that comes at me is really His loving prod. The painful aspects create need of Him so that I clutch harder. The affirming pats on the back may be His pleasured stroke.

I am enfolded in His hand. All my activity is cupped within His palm and beneath His fingers. Where can I escape Him? "If I ascend into heaven, You are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold You are there." If I could but still my frantic fight, I'm sure I could see the ridges of His fingerprints. If I could see everything as His fingers rather than obstructions to my achievement, I would learn to trust and rest with the warmth of His heart emanating from the center of His palm. And I would be in the center of His will.

In Ruth we see that there are no "mere coincidences" in the lives of God's people; His fingerprints can be found on seemingly the most trivial events.
Quotation from the NIV Worship Bible

As I live in the Father's palm, His clutch can seem painfully uncomfortable. He is constantly maneuvering me with His fingers using humans, events and circumstances. Ultimately it is all to get me into relationship with Him.

And He is so patient - frighteningly so. He will take years to do it. My impatience is no match for His patience. He will win. The ultimate goal, to lay down quiet and still in His enfolding. The way is through exhausting struggles to escape.

How can God be omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent? All, powerful, all knowing and always present. God is that big. He is so immense as to be intimately involved with every aspect, every event, every thing in my life. I sit in the palm of His hand.

The world isn't out of control. The earth doesn't axis on a thread knocked easily off its course. God is the master of it all.


Receive every inward and outward trouble, every disappointment, pain, uneasiness, temptation, darkness and desolation, with both thy hands, as a true opportunity and blessed occasion of dying to self, and entering into a fuller fellowship with thy self-denying, suffering Savior. Look at no inward or outward trouble in any other view; reject every other thought about it, and then every kind of trial and distress will become the blessed day of thy prosperity. That state is best, which exercises the highest faith in and fullest resignation to God.
William Law (1686-1761)

Copyright ©  John Enslow