I mean no disrespect. I only mean to say that it doesn't matter whether we turn right or left, we can only go in the direction God has already predetermined. God never changes, and he never changes his mind. Our steps are laid out in front of us, and while we're given choices, the outcome will always be what God intends.
Jeremiah 29:11 is just one of many encouragements to understanding his will in our lives:
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."
Nothing we can do, or choose, will change God's plan, and that includes the calamity we might face.
Isaiah 45:7 "The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these."
What is about to happen has already happened.
Jeff, God is sovereign, knows the end from the beginning, but we do not. He has created this world for us to have the experience of life, learning through this experience. All the circumstances we encounter we don't know the future outcome, so we have to think, reason and make decisions, which develops character, good or bad, but we are becoming unique individuals because of it. That's what this life is about, bringing beings into existence and giving us this physical opportunity to live and learn and developing individuality... though all we're similar as in human, but there are many differences in each of us.
Yes God is in control, I mean He has all the power, without Him there is nothing, if He didn't bring it about it wouldn't happen. But He is making us so much more than puppets or pawns in His hands, that's what is so incredible and beautiful about all this. What He is doing is making us as thinking reasoning creatures, we weigh the options and make decisions, develop knowledge, gain understanding, create memories and personality. Though we do not have free will (an impossibility as God has all power), yet we still have a sense of freedom! The whole world thinks they have free will, because God has designed this creation so intricate and complex that we are unaware of all the millions of unseen causes at work around us... so we live our lives and do not feel every move is caused.
I guess only when you come to the knowledge of the truth and realize what God's sovereignty really is, that this can cause you distress and unhappy about the condition of the world right now. It's interesting that God has blinded all but a very few to this knowledge in this age, in His wisdom He knows this is a very hard thing to understand... well again the individuality, as I see it is very hard for come to come to terms with this, but it is not for me.
In the next age God we will have the next phase of His plan, I think we will see how truly remarkable His grace and justice will be at setting things right. But we do have to trust/believe that our God is capable of that...
mercy, peace and love
Kat