God does not engineer the events of our lives, but He does, through the events of our lives, engineer us by His Spirit. Because He is love, He allows us to choose. Our choices and the collective choices of other humans, past and present, have created the circumstances and events of our lives. God does not sit aloof from what is going on in the stream of our lives and human history, but has entered it through incarnation. It is His goal to shape us like our Lord Jesus through everything that is happening to us. Running away in actuality or imagination only postpones what He is wanting to reveal of Himself at the moment. When we learn to act and react in a Christlike manner, we experience the God who is; He inhabits Christlike actions and reactions.
“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” Romans 8:28-29 (NLT)
