Thomas Boston

The Crook in the Lot Thomas Boston

'Consider the work of God, for who can make that straight which He has made crooked'' (Ecclesiastes 7:3) One's lot consists of all the things in life that God has allotted to a person. So if one sees rough and painful happenings in life, looking to second causes first will but stir up fretting and fuming. But a look at the first cause will remind us that it is God that has caused the crook in our lot, If He is to work all things to our good, He at times must put a kink in our plans. ''A man's heart plans his way, but Jehovah fixes his step'' (Pro. 16:9). Observe: 1. Whatever crook there is in our lot, it is of God's making. He has decreed all things in our lives, else how could He make all things work to our good? Each one has been allotted certain things, each of us differently; yet so as to make them work together. If between two saints, good for both of them. If between an unbeliever and a believer, the unbeliever's life works to the good of the believer. 2. What God sees fit to mar, no one will be able to mend his lot. When the course of events cross our plans, and God has done it, then only God can unloose the knot in our plans. 3. Everyone's lot in this world has some crook in it. Complainers are apt to make odious comparisons. Everyone feels for himself, when he is pinched, though others do not see it. Only God knows the pain allotted to each. 4. The crook in the lot came into the world by sin. It is owing to the Fall that sin entered the world. This crook in our lot inseparably follows our sinful condition, till dropping this body of sin we enter Heaven's gates. There was no personal sin in Christ, yet He was humiliated and suffered for the sins of others. All this was decreed of Him. Why not in our lives also?