We have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will – Ephesians 1:11
It is unsettling, to some degree, for us to realize that God is actively engaged in His creation and is working everything after the counsel of his own will.
Paul specifically speaks, in this verse, of God’s predestinating a particular people to receive a heavenly inheritance. God’s sovereignty and power are certainly nowhere displayed more abundantly than in the accomplishment of our salvation.
On practically every page of the Scriptures we are reminded that God is able to save whomever He desires to save, whenever He wishes to do so. God is not in heaven wringing His hands in consternation and frustration, hoping someone down on earth will trust in Him. God has predestinated those who will be saved.
But Paul further generalizes from this illustration of sovereign authority, in order to remind us that this predestination is only one example of the fact that God is working all things after his own will. Nothing is outside the sovereign rule of God.
Why is this so unsettling to us? It is because we all, deep down, would like to have the universe (or at least our own little world) revolve around our will, instead. We don’t like to acknowledge the obvious: there are countless events and people and choices that are completely out of our control.
But, when we realize that God is all-good, all-wise, and all-powerful, it should comfort us to know that His will, not ours, is what makes the world go round.