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By Dean Collins
President, Point University

I find myself in a tension. Maybe you feel it as well. I get excited by the amazing, nearly unbelievable technology advances that impact my life daily. It seems nearly every day I learn of some new invention, app, or technology breakthrough that either has made or will make my life easier. The things my phone can do today I could not have imagined just a few years ago. If I get to live just a few more years I will get in a car that drives me where I need to go while I read a book or take a nap. New inventions and technology are everywhere, and much good comes from all of it.

On the other hand, I’ve observed that many believe somehow our advancements will translate to more help with substantive topics like justice, poverty, and even salvation. The suggestion of some is that our progress with technology means that we will also find new and innovative ways to solve things that history suggests have never been solved. And the reason we haven’t solved some of these weightier matters is that we think we are smarter than God.

I think we might need to take a lesson from the prophet Isaiah who said this (25:1): “O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.“

To those who had experienced and would experience significant difficulty, even exile, the prophet gave a word of hope. Isaiah reminded those in Judah that God had done wonderful things in the past. Those wonderful things, especially the deliverance out of Egypt and into the Promised Land were not suddenly thought up to arrive just in the nick of time. No, those wonderful events and the wonderful things God will do soon and later come from “plans formed of old, faithful and sure.”

Your pastor or some Bible teacher has no doubt told you that God is not surprised by whatever circumstances we find ourselves in the middle of this minute. Our all-knowing God sees everything and has already formed plans to help us now and permanently. These are not pie-in-the-sky plans. They are plans formed long ago, faithful and sure because God is faithful and sure. God can turn powerful groups, rulers, and oppressors into heaps of ruin. The powerful and arrogant may think they have conquered and will enjoy their powerful places, but in an instant God can, has, and will turn the ruthless leaders and structures into ruin.

But on the other hand, he will simultaneously be a shelter in the time of storms for those who trust him. Just as he has met the needs of many who have been in helpless and difficult places before, he will do it again and again. God is not partial to the past. He is for us and is victorious in the present as well.