God’s Word for You
Philippians 2:24 God’s will is done
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, March 23, 2026
24 But I am also confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon.
In Greek, this verse is paired with verse 23 in a classic construction that less elegantly might be translated, “On the one hand, I hope to send Timothy, but on the other hand, I am also confident that I will come to you soon.”
How confident is he? He is making plans to send Timothy, at least in part because he doesn’t really know whether he will survive his verdict. He is waiting for the human judge and his verdict, but he puts his life in God’s hands.
This is part of the doctrine of preservation, or divine providence. It is an act of God the Father just as creation is an act of God the Father. It means first of all that God keeps all created things in such a way that they retain their characteristic essence and power. Water retains the characteristics of water. So do stone, light, and fire, and all other created things. Water is drawn ever downward (Psalm 104:10). Fire and sparks are drawn ever upward (Job 5:7). Earth and stone are in a sense the embodiment of ‘down’ (Psalm 40:2,) just as air is in a sense the embodiment of ‘up’ (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Yet God is the one who wills these things. God preserves his creation through his holy will. Mankind is only able to do things during his lifetime according to and subordinate to God’s preserving will.
James said: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit’—you who do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, then we will live, and also do this or that’” (James 4:13-15). James doesn’t mean that we should never make any plans. He means that we shouldn’t make plans as if God’s will has nothing to do with our desires. If we plot, plan, desire, or scheme to do something that violates God’s supreme will, do you think that he will let us get away with it? This is why he made his Laws, precisely to keep mankind in check with his plottings and his schemings. The ancient world before the flood had very few laws, and they fell into mass violence and many shameful acts, until the Lord’s own heart was filled with pain on account of their wickedness (Genesis 6:6). He said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth” (Genesis 6:7), and this is just what he did with the great flood. Those wicked and sinful people were among “the spirits in prison” that Jesus proclaimed his victory to when he descended into hell (1 Peter 3:19-20).
And today, when someone violates God’s will with a crime, a murder, a choice of a sexually adulterous act or giving in to a perceived sexual orientation that God forbids—all of these sins will be punished. Sometimes the punishment is a sexually transmitted disease in this lifetime (Romans 1:27); sometimes it is a hidden sin that is never confessed, never repented, and never turned away from, that remains like a challenge or an insult to God’s sovereignty, but it will be punished in eternity for those who reject the forgiveness that could be theirs in Christ (Jonah 2:8).
So Paul does not tell God what to do. He does not plan as if God could only do mission work through him. He plans, but he plans according to God’s will, saying, “God’s will be done.”
Just a few days ago, I met a young women who grew up in the same county where I did missionary work more than twenty-five years ago. Her father was my classmate. She knows the church that resulted partly from my humble work. But she had no idea I had ever worked there. Probably no one there does, nor will they in the future. The Lord could have done the work he called me to do through anybody; perhaps the work he sent me to do was more about me than it was about the people of Covington, Washington. But I know that some souls were touched while I was there; the gospel was shared and proclaimed and learned, and lives were changed. That was the will of God. Praise God that his will is done, on earth as it is in heaven!
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.