Where in scripture does this idea that “God has a purpose for everything that happens” come from? Let’s first see what the word purpose means. Websters says, 1 To propose as an aim to oneself, to intend, resolve. 2 That which one sets before himself as an object to be attained. 3 resolution; determination.
Now let’s examine 5 scriptures that this idea could have come from.
Ec 3:1 ¶ To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
Ec 3:17 I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.
Ec 8:6 ¶ Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him
Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Ro 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
I’m no English major so I won’t even try to dissect the verses properly but follow along and see the reasoning I have for what I have to say. The first verse is the first verse of a very well known set of verses that has been put to song by the Byrds. The Biblical text posits there being a time and place for all things: laughter and sorrow, healing and killing, war and peace, and so on. The second and third verses say basically the same thing and when taken out of context and twisted just a little bit we could get that God has a purpose in all these things.
The verse from Ephesians actually talks of Gods purpose. If you read the 4th and the 5th verse, they go together to explain that we (God’s people, Christians) have obtained an inheritance because it was predetermined by God that his people should. This is explained in John 3:16.
Romans 8:28 is probably the verse most often used to express the idea of God having a purpose for everything. Now I’m going to turn things around on you. Suppose instead of thinking that God has a purpose for everything you think that God can use all things for His purpose. Doesn’t sound much different but it is. Instead of trying to find Gods’ reasoning in everything that happens or blaming God for things that happen we can now see that in spite of our errors and goof-ups and, yes, even sins, God can use our lives for His glory. You see, God has a plan for each one of us if we will seek Him and follow His will. All too often we don’t seek His will in everything that we do. We don’t pray about our lives like we should. Education, jobs, marriage, you name it and we probably seek our own way. Yes, we pray about it but all too often we do our own bidding because of love, lust, hunger, selfishness or even things unknown to ourselves at the time. We want to think that we have our best interests at heart but only God really does. As I look back at my life I see that I made decisions that looked good at the time but in retrospect I see that I made wrong decisions. I really have no idea what Gods plan for me was and I even veered off of my own plans. I wanted to be an architech but I’m a toolmaker. Since I have no idea what God wanted from me and God is really the only one who does, the big question is “If according to the idea that God has a purpose for everything what was His purpose for me not even fulfilling my own plans, much less the original plans He had for my life?"
The real question here is “If I have messed up my own life, or if something happens that I don’t like or understand can God still use it for His purpose?” When we know what God’s purpose is we realize that God can use anything for His purpose. There is a big difference between the two thoughts in that with the first you end up blaming God since you think whatever happens, God has a purpose for and the second is that we end up realizing that God can use what we have to offer up Him, good, bad, first, last, best or worse and it can be used for His glory. That goes for us too. God can use what we have to offer to Him. He is the Potter and we are the clay.
