We humans like to over-complicate. Perhaps it is our way of showing that life must be more complicated than simple because human beings are complex, as are everything that exudes from them (emotions especially). So we make complicated choices and suffer complications from those choices we make. Those of us with brains like to intellectualize more than we should and ought, making things more complicated than they are. Those of us who like to emotionalize depend too much on the little truth our emotions speak, making things more complicated than clear. Essentially, life becomes more complicated than it really is and the solutions more complicated than they really are, thus the joy of living is sucked right out of a complicated life. And who do we blame? Well, here we make things simple: God. Not ourselves or the complicated and often dumb choices we make but God who, because apparently my life is in His hands, delights to see me suffer and perhaps is punishing me for all the wrong things I've done. After talking with someone who admitted to believing this previous statement, I pondered the irony of mistaking God's will with God's plan.
It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and in that matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit. -- 1 Thessalonians 4:2
Choice is the unique attribute of human life that truly reflects who we really are and what master we serve. In everything there is a choice. The struggle of choosing is not simple, but often the choice that should be made is. God's will is that in every choice we make, we listen and heed to the Holy Spirit - who is often directly opposed to what we think or feel is right, convenient, or comfortable. God's will is that we be sanctified: transformed daily by the renewing of our mind. God's will is that we have self-control governed by the standards of holiness. God's will is that we stop using one another for self-gain, self-interest, and self-centered reasons. God's will is that we act like people who know God (because we do!) rather than like people who do not.
God's ultimate plan is to bring about good in us. The famously cited passage Romans 8:28 says: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son. And in Ephesians 1:11, Paul writes: God works all things according to the counsel of his will. How it is that God governs all events in the universe without sinning, and without removing responsibility from man, and with compassionate outcomes is mysterious. God governs all (the good, bad, pain, pleasure, etc.) for His wise, just, and good purposes. He is not to blame for the unwise and stupid choices we so often make that bring about unkind or painful events in our lives; likewise, he is not to blame for the sins we have committed against one another that bring about destruction. However, by his purposeful goodness he allows things to happen with the ultimate plan of bringing glory to Himself. The good he desires to bring about in us is transforming us into the likeness of his Son.
God is not like a firefighter who gets calls to show up at calamities when the damage is already happening. He is more like a surgeon who plans the cutting he must do and plans it for good purposes. Without the confidence that God rules over the beginning of our troubles, it is hard to believe that he could rule over the end. If we deny God his power and wisdom to govern the arrival of our pain, why should we think we can trust him with its departure? -- John Piper
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