Protection: God’s Unfailing Love through Jesus

Good parents want their children to succeed in life. But too much interference is actually counterproductive to that goal. Paul Tough’s new book, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, reveals how parents often need to rescue less, so that their children can fail more. Failure—and its lessons of resilience and perseverance—might contribute most to eventual success.

Sometimes we might wish for more of God’s interference. We pray for rescue, and by grace, often it comes. When it doesn’t, however, and it seems like we’re beating back temptations on our own, God is not standing idly by. He’s actively involved in our weakest moments, offering the invisible help of His own intercession. He prays for us, and His prayers are heard and answered because they align with His own ultimate purpose for our lives.

What is God’s ultimate purpose for us? Our perseverance. All those who have been called by God are guaranteed to meet a certain destiny. They will be conformed to the likeness of Jesus. God has promised the riches of heaven and earth on the fact that we will one day see Jesus and be like Him.

God is not unaware of our besetting sins and chronic failures. He is not blinded by the evident corruption of our hearts. God knows what kind of spiritual shape we’re in: “He searches our hearts” (v. 27). We may have even made disastrous mistakes that we cannot undo and we fear will disqualify us from God’s love and delight.

The guarantee of our spiritual victory isn’t anchored in our performance but in Christ’s. And God is a master craftsman, who is able to work good out of evil, even the resident evil within.