HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, April 20, 2025 – I wrote a few days ago about Jesus’ comment regarding God numbering all the hairs on our head. I mention this again (that God always knows precisely – to the strand – how many hairs are on our head) because we need to understand the absolute level of power and control God holds and exerts over all creation.

So, when people say “sh$t happens”, they’re wrong. When people refer to “luck”, they’re wrong. When people describe an event as “unforeseen”, “random”, “accidental”, or “serendipitous”, they’re wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong. When people say: “He died way too young”, they’re wrong. There’s no such thing as “bad timing” or something happening when it shouldn’t, just as there’s no such thing as coincidence, not in the sense of something randomly happening at the same time as something else. As born-again believers, we need to wipe the notion of random events and occurrences from our minds (and vocabularies) because they’re false teachings that originate with the devil.

And yet, God being in control of everything doesn’t mean we don’t have free will. We do. Even people who’ve signed on with the devil through the various secret and not-so-secret societies and organizations that administer the world (with God’s permission) still have free will. They can forswear their oath to the devil if they choose, but there are severe (i.e., fatal) worldly consequences, which is why most of the “brethren” remain within those societies and organizations, even to the detriment of their soul. But the point is, even those self-condemning people have free will while they’re yet on Earth.

Again – God controls everything, which is why there’s no such thing as “luck”, either good or bad. If God wants you to win the lottery, you’ll win it. If he doesn’t want you to win it, you won’t, no matter how many times you play your “lucky numbers”. If God wants you to run into someone unexpectedly, you will; if he doesn’t want you to see that person at that particular time, you won’t see them, even if they walk right past you. God doesn’t make our choices for us, but he does try to steer them this way or that. He does try to influence our choices, even while ultimately letting us choose on our own using our own decision-making processes. That’s free will. We’re not automatons, but everything outside the realm of our free will is entirely under God’s control based on God’s perfect justice mitigated by God’s perfect mercy.

That God has complete and absolute control of our natural and artificial environments is the best situation we can hope for. Scripture tells us that God made the planets and the stars and set them on their courses, and that he also made all the non-human creatures on Earth and set them on their various courses while keeping in close contact with them. God talks to his creatures just as surely as he talks to us. Even the tiniest of insects know God on a one-to-one basis and gravitate towards him, loving him in their own way just as we love God in our own way. So if you think you that you just randomly got bitten by a mosquito, think again – God either sent that mosquito (by name!) to bite you or he permitted it to bite you for a specific reason. Nothing happens beyond our free will that isn’t either willed or permitted by God. Our free will he won’t touch, but everything else is fair game.

Knowing that God is in full control not only of our environment but of our every interaction within that environment is, for me, massive cause for celebration. There’s no-one else I’d rather have in that role than God, because whatever God wills or permits, he does it with an eye to our benefit. Everything God does, he does it with an eye to our benefit, though it might not always seem so at the time. That’s why we need to trust God and have faith in God and let his plan unfold in his time and his way, all while saying “Yes!” to whatever God asks of us.

Our time here is short, and when it ends, we’ll be glad we did those things that God asked of us, the way that Jesus did everything that was asked of him, even in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus says that those who choose to prosper in this world rather than to follow him into the next will ultimately lose everything of real value. They might gain wealth and prestige and immunity from prosecution for a time, but their reward will be that of the rich man who suffered eternal torments in Hell while the poor man (Lazarus) was rewarded with eternal comforts in Heaven.

Our time here is very short. Whatever God asks of you, do it. Do it unhesitatingly and to the best of your ability, allowing his power to flow through you. Don’t think about it, don’t overthink it, don’t try to understand it, and don’t try to explain it or justify it to anyone.

Just, whatever your Father asks of you, do it.