I love Jeremiah 1:5 which says that God knew us before He formed us in the womb. Our seed of conception was wrapped in His completeness. Let this sink in: all of who you are is part of His purposed-pathway. We may be like Jonah with deviations through our disobedience. Yet, God will bring us through every designed trial. What He has begun He will complete.

There is a story in 2 Kings 4 about the Shunammite woman. You can read the whole story. In verse 13 Elisha asked her what he could do for her. She and her husband were old, yet they had no son. Verse 15 says, “…About this time next year you shall embrace a son…”

She had the promised son, and he was growing. Then one day he died. The women did not despair. She spoke life words to everyone who asked. In verse 35 his life was restored. Now we go to chapter 8. In verse 1 Elisha told the woman to leave because there was a famine coming that would last seven years. She did.

Verse 3 says that she returned after seven years. In verse 4 the king was listening to Elisha’s servant retell the story. Verse 5 says, “…as he was telling the king…there was the woman…appealing for her house and land to be restored…”

I love verse 6 and have often used it in praying for others and myself. It says, “…So the king appointed a certain officer for her, saying, Restore…” Yesterday, as I read this, I saw for the first time how she was wrapped in God’s completeness. So are we!

There is nothing that has ever taken place in our lives that was not purposeful. Ephesians 1:11 says, “In Him, also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.” Do you hear the completeness in this verse?

1 Peter 1:4-5 says that our inheritance is incorruptible, undefiled, and will not fade away. It is being kept for us by the power of God, the same power He used to raise Jesus from the dead. Right after Peter wrote that promise, he went into the subject of trials.

Trials are God’s instrument to conform us to His righteousness. Think again of the potter. It takes consistent pressure to center the clay before it can be formed. The Lord uses our trials as pressures to reveal the hidden dross-flaws as He centers us on Him. Picture a sign over your life: Do Not Despair God Is At Work.