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Some see God as active manager of the universe

• A Heavenly Master governs all the world as Sovereign of the universe. We are astonished at Him by reason of His perfection, we honor Him and fall down before Him because of His unlimited power. From blind physical necessity, which is always and everywhere the same, no variety adhering to time and place could evolve, and all variety of created objects which represent order and life in the universe could happen only by the willful reasoning of its original Creator, Whom I call the Lord God. Isaac Newton
• Because God is full of life, I imagine each morning Almighty God says to the sun, “Do it again”; and every evening to the moon and the stars, “Do it again”; and every springtime to the daisies, “Do it again”; and every time a child is born into the world asking for curtain call, that the heart of the God might once more ring out in the heart of the babe. Fulton J. Sheen
• God who is eternally complete, who directs the stars, who is the master of fates, who elevates man from his lowliness to Himself, who speaks from the cosmos to every single human soul, is the most brilliant manifestation of the goal of perfection. Alfred Adler
• I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less that God wishes – that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit, as well as the sun in the heavens – that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their course. The creeping of an aphid over the rosebush is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence – the fall of…leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche. Charles Spurgeon
• I came to realize I did believe in God. I couldn’t conceive of a universe without someone overseeing it in a compassionate way. Rainn Wilson
• The deity … is a living being, immortal, rational, perfect or intelligent in happiness, admitting nothing evil, taking providential care of the world and all that therein is, but he is not of human shape. Zeno
• The Universal Soul, as it is called, has an interest in the stacking of hay, the foddering of cattle, and the draining of peat-meadows. Henry David Thoreau
• There is something beautiful about a billion stars held steady by a God who knows what He is doing. Donald Miller
• The question before the human race is, whether the God of nature shall govern the world by his own laws, or whether priests and kings shall rule it by fictitious miracles? John Adams

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God is far from an absentee or hands-off manager

• If one yearns to see the face of the Divine, one must break out of the aquarium, escape the fish farm, to go swim up wild cataracts, dive in deep fjords. One must explore the labyrinth of the reef, the shadows of the lily pads. How limiting, how insulting to think of God as a benevolent warden, an absentee hatchery manager who imprisons us in the ‘comfort’ of artificial pools, where intermediaries sprinkle our restrictive waters with sanitized flakes of processed nutriment. Tom Robbins

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God controls everything…

• Even though absolute freedom would seem to be compatible with open possibilities and room for chance, the omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God leaves nothing to chance. God’s all determining will banishes chance and accident from the universe. God controls everything. Flora A. Keshgegian
• Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper. Albert Einstein
• For these believers nothing is outside the scope of that will: Hurricane Katrina, a victorious battle against an enemy, the remission of a virulent cancer, the airline crash that kills a whole family, meeting one’s life partner, passing a test, losing a child due to a drunk driver, and on and on. Whenever someone says, often in the face of tragedy, “It is God’s will;’ she is implying that God controls and intends everything. Or when someone asserts, “There but for the grace of God, go I-or you;’ he is putting everything under God’s charge. Flora A. Keshgegian
• God — if he really exist — is good, alive, self-conscious, and governs all things according to his benevolent and holy providence. William Batchelder Greene
• God is always at work around you. Henry Blackaby
• God is in control, and therefore in EVERYTHING I can give thanks – not because of the situation but because of the One who directs and rules over it. Kay Arthur
• God’s hand never slips. Billy Graham
• He sees the end from the beginning and rides upon the waves of time, directing colossal events, raising up an empire here, and pulling down a Nebuchadnezzar there. All in an eternity’s work. Robin Zaruba
• If you believe in a God who controls the big things, you have to believe in a God who controls the little things. It is we, of course, to whom things look ‘little’ or ‘big’. Elisabeth Elliot
• Man thinks, God directs. Alcuin
• This metaphor asserts that God is fully in charge and directing all of life. Everything is determined by God’s will. Flora A. Keshgegia
• When you believe in God, you’ve got to believe in the all-powerful God. He’s not just God, He’s the all-powerful God and He has total control over everyone’s life. The Devil, on the other hand, is a real character that’s trying his hardest to tear your life apart. Alice Cooper

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…with a clear plan and design for our lives…

• Every man’s life is a plan of God. Horace Bushnell
• God has more for you in your future than you could ever dream of in your present and he’s already seen you in it. Rod Parsley
• God is the Great Engineer, creating circumstances to bring about moments in our lives of divine importance, leading us to divine appointments. Oswald Chambers
• God, or a source of divinity, put together a map for our lives. That map includes opportunities-not outcomes-but opportunities. And those opportunities are contracts [or] agreements-not that our ego or personality made, but our soul did. Caroline Myss
• Never believe that the so-called random events of life are anything less than God’s appointed order. Be ready to discover His divine designs anywhere and everywhere. Oswald Chambers
• No circumstance, person, or difficulty can stop the plans and the promises of God. David Jeremiah
• Some believe that plan is fully detailed. Everything that happens in a person’s life has been determined and orchestrated by God, often before birth. There are no accidents. If a child is killed in a car crash, that is God’s will. God has determined what occupation each of us will have and who our life partner will be or not be. Nothing is open ended. Nothing is “to be determined.” We cannot see the plan as a whole, but it is there, all of it, in the mind of God. Flora A. Keshgegian
• We must be faithful to the present moment or we will frustrate the plan of God for our lives. Solanus Casey
• Your life has been intentionally designed by God to have a uniquely significant and eternal impact on the world around you. Tony Dungy

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…all part of God’s master plan

• The power of God will take you out of your own plans and put you into the plan of God. Smith Wigglesworth
• There’s a Grand Designer behind everything. Your life is not a result of random chance, fate, or luck. There is a master plan. History is His story. God is pulling the strings. Rick Warren
• These “plans” that determine the details of our lives as well as their outcome have been in place from the beginning. Such plans include not only what happens to us in this life but also beyond this life. Flora A. Keshgegian
• We are here for God’s designs, not for our own. Oswald Chambers
• No one is where he is by accident, and chance plays no part in God’s plan. A Course in Miracles
• The perfect plan begets no second thoughts, nor any Plan B. From the beginning, from holy words to tablets of stone, parchment to printing press, there have been no retractions, no corrections, no addendums or second editions. Robin Zaruba

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God takes care of us and our lives…

• Ask God to give you the strength to endure, and rest assured, He will take care of you. Joel Osteen
• Doesn’t the God who created the universe out of nothing and put all the stars in place, have the power to take care of your situation? Jim Cymbala

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…orchestrating circumstances and events…

• A saint realizes that it is God who engineers his circumstances; consequently there are no complaints, only unrestrained surrender. Oswald Chambers
• Accidents are just incidents in God’s good plan for you. Rick Warren
• Are then human beings free? If God’s will is all determining, what freedom do we human beings have in relation to God and to what happens in our lives? Flora A. Keshgegian
• At this very moment, God’s working behind the scenes in your life, arranging things in your favor. Stay in faith! Joel Osteen
• God knows your value; He sees your potential. You may not understand everything you are going through right now. But hold your head up high, knowing that God is in control and he has a great plan and purpose for your life. Joel Osteen
• God speaks to every individual through what happens to them moment by moment. Jean-Pierre de Caussade

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…including the people who come into our lives…

• God will always bring the right people into your life, but you have to let the wrong people walk away. Joel Osteen
• All God’s angels come to us disguised. James Russell Lowell

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…bringing good out of even that what which appears bad or challenging at the time

• God loves to bring good out of bad. He loves to turn crucifixions into resurrections. Every obstacle is an opportunity. Every problem has potential. Every crisis is an opportunity for ministry. Every hurt God wants to use for His glory. Rick Warren
• Sometimes God lets you be in a situation that only He can fix so that you can see that He is the One who fixes it. Rest. He’s got it. Tony Evans
• The real hope is not in something we think we can do, but in God, who is making something good out of it in some way we cannot see. Thomas Merton
• Everything that occurs in your life is part of God’s plan to wake you up. Leonard Jacobson
• It is in the quiet crucible of your personal, private sufferings that your noblest dreams are born and God’s greatest gifts are given. Wintley Phipps
• Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. C. S. Lewis

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This means everything happens for a divinely ordained reason and purpose…

• Every single thing you’ve been through in your life has had a purpose. Beth Moore
• You’ve got to operate on the premise that everything happens for a reason. That even setbacks are progress. That there is some divine sensibility to how all of this is unfolding—that there is some order to this chaos. Danielle LaPorte
• Purpose

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… and for our highest good…

• Dear God, I trust that no matter what happens in my life, it is for my highest good. And no matter what happens in the lives of those I love, it is for their highest good. From all things that are put before us all, we shall become stronger and more loving people. I am grateful for all the beauty and opportunity you put into my life. And in all that I do, I shall seek to be a channel for your love. Susan Jeffers
• Don’t be hypnotized by appearances. What you see with your eyes is colored by your experiences, prejudices and other veils of influence. Whatever you are facing know this: what is happening has the power to bless you now and always. Marta Davidovich Ockuly
• Life is simple. Everything happens for you, not to you. Everything happens at exactly the right moment, neither too soon nor too late. You don’t have to like it… it’s just easier if you do. Byron Katie
• Though we can’t always see it at the time, if we look upon events with some perspective, we see things always happen for our best interests. We are always being guided in a way better than we know ourselves. Swami Satchidananda
• To reach the goal of happiness, act as though the following statement is already true: Everything that happens to me is the best thing that can happen to me. Chris Prentiss
• What could you not accept, if you but knew that everything that happens, all events, past, present, and to come, are gently planned by One Whose only purpose is your good? A Course in Miracles

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…in order to allow us to grow and learn…

• The quickest way to change your attitude toward pain is to accept the fact that everything that happens to us has been designed for our spiritual growth. M. Scott Peck
• Everyone and everything that we experience in life is in service to our healing, personal growth, and evolution. Lorraine Cohen
• Every situation, every moment, provides the opportunity for self- growth and development of your character. David Reynolds
• Everything in your life is there as a vehicle for your transformation. Use it! Ram Dass
• Things do not happen to you, they happen for you. There is an opportunity for you to grow in every situation. Neale Donald Walsch
• The entire universe is a university. Everything and everybody is a professor to us. We constantly learn from everybody and everything. We learn even more through pain than through pleasure. Whether we want it to or not, the world will give us the experiences we need and make us grow. Sri Swami Satchidananda

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… in order to allow us to awaken and evolve in consciousness…

• You cannot, and will not, encounter a circumstance, or a single moment, that does not serve directly and immediately the need of your soul to heal. Gary Zukav
• Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at this moment. Eckhart Tolle
• If you accept that your relationships are here to make you conscious instead of happy, then the relationship will offer your salvation, and you will be aligning yourself with the higher consciousness that wants to be born into this world. Eckhart Tolle
• The flower of consciousness needs the mud out of which it grows. Eckhart Tolle
• You are not here to merely survive but to soar, to express and release the dynamic power of consciousness residing at the deepest center of your being. Michael Bernard Beckwith
• Life gives you exactly what you need to awaken. Scott McLeod
• Everything that occurs in your life is part of God’s plan to wake you up. Leonard Jacobson

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…in order to help us be all we can be…

• God wants us to grow and achieve our potential. Carlos A. Godoy
• God’s greatest gift to you is your unlimited potential. Your greatest gift to God is to use that potential to the fullest. James Arthur Ray
• I want to change my circumstances. God wants to change me. Rick Warren

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If God is in complete control, we must allow God to govern…

• God doesn’t need our consent in order to govern us; He made us. R. C. Sproul
• God has called His creation to find satisfaction in a personal relationship with Him, and stop trying to manage the world by conforming it to our expectations, and to allow Him to govern His creation. He continues to say through an ancient Hebrew worship song, “Be still and know that I am God!” Charles R. Swindoll
• Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by His Providence. That He ought to be worshipped. Benjamin Franklin
• I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth — that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? Benjamin Franklin
• Let me remind you that this is God’s universe, and He is doing things His way. You may think you have a better way, but you don’t have a universe to rule. J. Vernon McGee
• The longer I live the more convinced I become that God governs in the affairs of men. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance. Benjamin Franklin
• What discord should we bring into the universe if our prayers were all answered! Then we should govern the world, and not God. And do you think we should govern it better? Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• You must also remember that the world has God to govern it, and He has not left it to our charity. The Lord God is its Governor and Maintainer, and in spite of these wine fanatics and cigar fanatics, and all sorts of marriage fanatics, it would go on. If all these persons were to die, it would go on none the worse. Swami Vivekananda

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…which means we can resign our job as general manager of the universe

• For peace of mind, we need to resign as general manager of the universe. Larry Eisenberg
• I could imagine God saying to a lot of us, “Hey, I’m God, and you’re not. You’re not the general manager of the universe.” And the greatest stress reliever is take God seriously, but don’t take yourself seriously. Rick Warren
• If you want peace of mind I suggest you resign as general manager of the universe. Dan Millman
• Stop trying to protect, to rescue, to judge, to manage the lives around you… Remember that the lives of others are not your business. They are their business. They are God’s busineess… Even your own life is not your business. It also is God’s Business. Leave it to God. Frederick Buechner

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If God is in complete control, we can put our affairs in the hands of God…

• Although the sovereignty of God is universal and absolute, it is not the sovereignty of blind power. It is coupled with infinite wisdom, holiness and love. And this doctrine, when properly understood, is a most comforting and reassuring one. Who would not prefer to have his affairs in the hands of a God of infinite power, wisdom, holiness and love, rather than to have them left to fate, or chance, or irrevocable natural law, or to short-sighted and perverted self? Those who reject God’s sovereignty should consider what alternatives they have left. Loraine Boettner
• I believe God is managing affairs and that He doesn’t need any advice from me. With God in charge, I believe everything will work out for the best in the end. So what is there to worry about. Henry Ford
• I want to encourage you to place yourself totally into God’s hands and allow Him to be the Manager of your life. Joyce Meyer
• If God is your co-pilot – swap seats.
• It’s God’s job to run the world. Sometimes we accomplish more by doing less. Max Lucado
• Let go and let God. Let Him take over your life and run it. He knows how. Norman Vincent Peale
• No one has more time than you have. It is the discipline and stewardship of your time that is important. The management of time is the management of self; therefore if you manage time with God, he will begin to manage you. Jill Briscoe
• We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God…..We must not…..assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden. Corrie Ten Boom

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…by learning to trust God…

• Allah manages everything in the heavens and earth—the sun, the moon, the stars—with perfection, and yet we don’t trust Him to manage our lives! Yasmin Mogahed
• God will take control, but we will never let him take control until we trust him. Silence is intimately related to trust. Richard J. Foster
• God, comfort me with the truth that you see the end from the beginning. I know it in my head, but help me to feel it in my heart. Shepherd me now as I walk through this latest trial and strengthen me with the promise that you have seen tomorrow and you will meet me there with grace enough for the day. Amen. Robin Zaruba
• Just because you can’t see or imagine a good reason why God might allow something to happen doesn’t mean there can’t be one. Timothy Keller
• Mostly I think I’ve learned to trust God more. I mean, if I start getting worried or freaked, I just try to put it in God’s hands. Sometimes I imagine God cradling the globe in his hands, and I tell myself that as long as I’m with God, the Creator of the universe, I can be comfortable and at home anyplace on the planet. Melody Carlson
• One has to trust that God knows how to manage the world. Isaac Bashevis Singer
• Things may not be logical or fair, but when God is directing the events of our lives, they are right. Luci Swindoll
• You must hand yourself and all your inward experiences, your temptations, your temperament, your frames and feelings, all over into the care of your God, and leave them there. He made you and therefore He understands you, and knows how to manage you, and you must trust Him to do it. Hannah Whitall Smith
• Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God. Corrie ten Boom
• Put your trust in the Lord and go ahead. Worry gets you no place. Roy Acuff
• Dear God, I trust that no matter what happens in my life, it is for my highest good. And no matter what happens in the lives of those I love, it is for their highest good. From all things that are put before us all, we shall become stronger and more loving people. I am grateful for all the beauty and opportunity you put into my life. And in all that I do, I shall seek to be a channel for your love. Susan Jeffers

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…realising God has a far better overview of things than us

• God sometimes answers our prayers by giving us what we would have asked for had we known what He knows. J. D. Greear
• He is drawing us into the unknown and troubled waters of today. But they are unknown and troubled only to us. For Not Surprised already arrived at today eons past and beckons us – come, and fear not. Robin Zaruba
• For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done… Isaiah 46:9-10

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If God is in control, we can surrender all to God, including the running of our lives

• Once we surrender our mind to God completely, He will take care of us in every way. Sathya Sai Baba
• One enters the kingdom not through truths or teachings but moment-to-moment surrendering to the Mystery. John Kehoe
• The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven’t yet come to the end of themselves. We’re still trying to give orders, and interfering with God’s work within us. Tozer
• Inhale, and God approaches you. Hold the inhalation, and God remains with you. Exhale, and you approach God.  Hold the exhalation, and surrender to God.  Krishnamacharya
• A key to everything is surrender – to really come before the Lord and say, ‘I will literally stay here as long as you want me to stay’ or ‘God, I will really go anywhere on the earth.’ Francis Chan
• Ask God for the grace to live for Him and continue to live in Him. Right now, surrender it all to Him. B. Joshua
• In that moment of praying and letting go, I really understood the principle of surrender. The principle of surrender is that, after you have done all that you can do, and you’ve done your best and given it your all, you then have to release it to whatever you call God, or don’t call God. Oprah Winfrey
• Coming unto the Lord is not a negotiation, but a surrender. Neal A. Maxwell
• We must surrender ourselves to God, not our assignments. E’yen A. Gardner
• Do not think that if we surrender to God we will be loser. We will not lose anything except bondage, frustration and suffering. That is all we will lose. Radhanath Swami
• Every time I surrender to stress, aren’t I advertising the unreliability of God? Ann Voskamp
• Everyone has noticed how hard it is to turn our thoughts to God when everything is going well with us… While what we call ‘our own life’ remains agreeable, we will not surrender it to Him. What, then, can God do in our interests but make ‘our own life’ less agreeable to us, and take away the plausible sources of false happiness? C. S. Lewis
• Surrender the thing you fear into the hands of God. Turn it right over to God and ask Him to solve it with you. Fear is keeping things in your own hands; faith is turning them over into the hands of God. Stanley Jones
• God will not force himself upon us against our will. If we want his love, we need to believe in him. We need to make a definite, positive act of commitment and surrender to the love of God. No one can do it for us. Billy Graham
• The love of God is a hard love. It demands total self-surrender, disdain of our human personality. And yet it alone can reconcile us to suffering and the deaths of children, it alone can justify them, since we cannot understand them, and we can only make God’s will ours. Albert Camus
• Give your spiritual ‘power of attorney’ to God. Ron Rattner
• God’s delight is received upon surrender, not awarded upon conquest. Max Lucado
• He knows what He is doing with me. I cannot always understand His way, but I am content in the realization that He knows what is best. That is surrender. Daya Mata
• If you don’t surrender to God, don’t think you don’t surrender. Everybody surrenders — to something. E. Stanley Jones
• Let go, and let God. Ron Rattner
• There is no way for a human being to come to God that does not involve surrender. John Ortberg
• The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven’t yet come to the end of themselves. We’re still trying to give orders, and interfering with God’s work within us. W. Tozer
• The full acting out of the self’s surrender to God therefore demands pain: this action, to be perfect, must be done from the pure will to obey, in the absence, or in the teeth, of inclination. S. Lewis
• Surrender yourselves then to be led and disposed of just as God pleases, with respect both to your outward and inward state. Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon
• Since I am I, I must make an act of self-surrender, however small or however easy, in living to God rather than to my self. S. Lewis
• Saying yes to God isn’t about perfect performance, but rather perfect surrender to the Lord day by day. Lysa TerKeurst
• Many people have criticized Islam for being just automatic, having no individuality, just surrendering your will to God, but we Muslims know very well that every moment of the day we have to practice the fact that to surrender one’s self to God is an act of free will. Seyyed Hossein Nasr

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We can surrender to God’s timing

• I trust in the perfection of Divine Timing and allow my life to unfold as it should. Cheryl Richardson
• When we are unduly impatient with an omniscient God’s timing, we really are suggesting that we know what’s best. Strange isn’t it-we who wear wrist watches seek to counsel Him who oversees cosmic clocks and calendars. Neal A. Maxwell
• The best things are never arrived at in haste. God is in no hurry; His plans are never rushed. Michael R. Phillips
• The great soul that sits on the throne of the universe is not, never was, and never will be, in a hurry. Bill Vaughan

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We can trust that “All is Well”, no matter how things seem

• God is in his Heaven, all’s right with the world. Robert Browning
• Before me, even as behind, God is, and all is well. John Greenleaf Whittier
• There is no hurry. There is only God, and all is well with the world. Wallace D. Wattles
• Say you are well, or all is well with you, and God shall hear your words and make them true. Ella Wheeler Wilcox
• We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
• If my life is surrendered to God, all is well. Let me not grab it back, as though it were in peril in His hand but would be safer in mine! Elisabeth Elliot
• For in the Third Showing when I saw that God does all that is done, I saw no sin: and then I saw that all is well. But when God showed me for sin, then said He: All SHALL be well. Julian of Norwich
• If the salmon and steelhead are running, then as far as I am concerned, God knows that all is well in His world; the health of the environment is good if the salmon and steelhead are around. It is that simple. Tom McCall
• To put it another way, pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Why must it be pain? Why can’t he rouse us more gently, with violins or laughter? Because the dream from which we must be wakened, is the dream that all is well. William Nicholson
• If you believe that God overrules all things for good, and only permits apparently evil happenings for good and the achievement of great ends unbeknown to you, then all is well. All is well because you believe in the sovereignty of God. Henry Thomas Hamblin
• Love takes care of everything. Love is the same as absolute awareness, pure intelligence, or the power of God. When you have enough love inside, there are truly no problems. Problems only arise when you believe you are separate and lacking love. Robert Adams
• Let us put our trust in God and console ourselves with the thought that all is well, if it is in accordance with the will of the Almighty, as He knows best what is profitable and beneficial to our temporal happiness and our eternal salvation. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Talk health. The dreary, never-changing tale Of mortal maladies is worn and stale. You cannot charm, or interest, or please By harping in that minor chord, disease. Say you are well, or all is well with you, And God shall hear your words and make them true. Ella Wheeler Wilcox
• Whatever happens in your life, no matter how troubling things might seem, do not enter the neighbourhood of despair. Even when all doors remained closed, God will open up a new path only for you. Be thankful! It is easy to be thankful when all is well. A Sufi is thankful not only for what he has been given but also for all that he has been denied. Shams Tabrizi
• Everything is a grace, everything is the direct effect of our Father’s love – difficulties, contradictions, humiliations, all the soul’s miseries, her burdens, her needs – everything, because through them, she learns humility, realizes her weakness. Everything is a grace because everything is God’s gift. Whatever be the character of life or its unexpected events – to the heart that loves, all is well. Therese of Lisieux
• Circumstances “make sense” if we can convince ourselves that they were “meant to be” that way. Strangely enough, this belief subtly leads us to the idea that all is good. For, if something happens that is unwanted, we consider it as “good in disguise.” Carolyn Jane Bohler

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We can trust the universe is in perfect divine order …

• Know that everything is in perfect order whether you understand it or not. Valery Satterwhite
• I trust in the ebb and flow of the universe. I trust that life’s bigger than what I can see. I trust that there is a divine order beyond my control. And I trust that no matter what happens, I will be all right. Oprah Winfrey
• The Universe is in perfect order. The stars, the moon, and the sun are all operating in perfect Divine right order. There is an order, a rhythm, and a purpose to their pathways. I am part of the Universe; therefore, I know that there is an order, a rhythm, and a purpose to my life. Louise L Hay
• The snow falls, each flake in its appropriate place. Zen saying
• Everything that we experience, everything that we think, feel and do is in divine order. It is part of the universal flow that helps us discover who we are. Lyanla Vanzant

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… including this very moment

• Everything is perfect in being what it is. John Kehoe
• Know that everything is in perfect order whether you understand it or not. Valery Satterwhite
• I know that this moment is as it should be because the whole universe is as it should be. Deepak Chopra
• Everything that happens, happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so. Marcus Aurelius
• This moment — the one you’re experiencing right now — is the culmination of all the moments you have experienced in the past. This moment is as it is because the entire universe is as it is. Deepak Chopra
• Everything is as it should be. Ken Wilber
• In this moment, there is plenty of time. In this moment, you are precisely as you should be. In this moment, there is infinite possibility. Victoria Moran
• This very moment is the perfect teacher, and lucky for us, it’s with us wherever we are. Pema Chodron

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…and that all is unfolding precisely as it should

• The Universe is unfolding precisely as it should. We are all of us, exactly where it is perfect for us to be, all the time. And we need nothing more of our evolution than exactly what we have, and are experiencing, right now. Neale Donald Walsch
• Whether or not it is apparent to you, undoubtedly the universe is unfolding as it should. Pierre Trudeau
• You are right on track, right on schedule. Everything is unfolding perfectly. All is really well. Have fun. Have fun. Have fun! Abraham-Hicks
• At any given time, the universe is giving you the best result possible. Deepak Chopra
• Everything is perfect in being what it is. When I fully accept this, I walk the path of beauty. When I cease my judging, criticizing, comparing, I see that all things have their place. In the grand scheme of the universe unfolding, all things are as they should be. Not so much as a hair is out of place in the universe. All things are unfolding in their special way. John Kehoe
• Everything that happens, happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so. Marcus Aurelius
• Everything you need comes to you in perfect time, space and sequence. Louise Hay
• Nothing comes ahead of its time, and nothing has ever happened that didn’t need to happen. Byron Katie
• World, I am in tune with every note of thy great harmony. For me nothing is early, nothing late, if it be timely for thee. O Nature, all that thy seasons yield is fruit for me. Marcus Aurelius
• This is the ultimate truth of synchrodestiny—that the sum total of the universe is conspiring to create your personal destiny… We cannot even imagine the complex forces behind every event that occurs in our lives. There’s a conspiracy of coincidences that weave the web of karma or destiny and creates an individual’s personal life. Deepak Chopra
• You’ve got to operate on the premise that everything happens for a reason. That even setbacks are progress. That there is some divine sensibility to how all of this is unfolding—that there is some order to this chaos. Danielle LaPorte

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There are no mistakes or accidents…

• Nothing happens in life by accident. Nothing. Nothing occurs in your life by chance. Nothing. Nothing takes place without producing the opportunity for real and lasting benefit to you. Nothing at all. The perfection of every moment may not be apparent to you, yet that will make the moment no less perfect. It will be no less a gift. Neale Donald Walsch
• No one is where he is by accident, and chance plays no part in God’s plan. A Course in Miracles
• Every successful, truly happy person that I have encountered has confirmed their knowing that there are simply no accidents. Wayne Dyer
• There are no accidents… there is only some purpose that we haven’t yet understood. Deepak Chopra
• There is no such thing as chance; and what seems to us mere accident springs form the deepest source of destiny. Friedrich Schiller
• Nothing ever goes wrong.  Nisargadatta Maharaj

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… and nothing happens by chance or by coincidence

• God does not play dice with the universe. Albert Einstein
• I shall never believe that God plays dice with the world. Albert Einstein
• Nothing in this world happens by chance. Paulo Coelho
• Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in this life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
• Synchronicity and coincidences are ways the Divine winks at you to show you that you are loved and cared for. Lorraine Cohen
• Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous. Albert Einstein
• I tell you this: There is no coincidence, and nothing happens “by accident.” Each event and adventure is called to your Self by your Self in order that you might create and experience Who You Really Are. Neale Donald Walsch
• There are no coincidences in the universe. Neale Donald Walsch
• Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous. Albert Einstein

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Knowing God is in complete control can be very comforting…

• For those who relate to this metaphor for God, this affirmation is freeing and empowering. It releases them from carrying their burdens alone. It promises them that someone else, upon whom they may rely, is in charge. They are not vulnerable to chance and chaos. Ultimately, evil will be defeated and the powers of this world put in their place. Such assurances surely evoke praise, the primary mode of prayer to God the monarch. Flora A. Keshgegian
• Imagine that the gods have a care for everything that lives in the community of life on earth. Daniel Quinn
• Nothing can be more consoling to the man of God, than the conviction that the Lord who made the world governs the world; and that every event, great and small, prosperous and adverse, is under the absolute disposal of Him who doth all things well, and who regulates all things for the good of his people. Jerry Bridges
• Peace has in it trust in the Lord, that He governs all things, provides all things, and leads to a good end. Emanuel Swedenborg
• People may feel comforted by the perspective that whatever happens, God is in charge. Flora A. Keshgegian
• We are not to be anxious about the unknown future or to fret about it. We are to live in a moment-by-moment dependence upon God. James Montgomery Boice
• With God in charge, I believe everything will work out for the best in the end. Henry Ford
• Cast your cares on God; that anchor holds. Alfred Lord Tennyson
• He who climbs above the cares of this world, and turns his face to his God, has found the sunny side of life. Charles Haddon Spurgeon
• Do not be afraid of tomorrow; for God is already there.

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…for it allows us to turn our worries over to God

• Every evening I turn my worries over to God. He’s going to be up all night anyway. Mary C. Crowley
• Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith. Henry Ward Beecher
• Good morning, this is God. I will be handling all of your problems today. I will not need your help, so have a miraculous day. Wayne Dyer
• I believe God is managing affairs and that He doesn’t need any advice from me. With God in charge, I believe everything will work out for the best in the end. So what is there to worry about? Henry Ford
• I close my eyes, then cut an imagery cord that is attaching me to whatever I am worrying about. I then say to myself “OK God, I am doing my best. I’ll let you take over now. Take over God, I trust it is all happening perfectly.” I take a deep breath and feel myself letting go.” Susan Jeffers
• Worry is a direct consequence of relying on your own efforts. Yasmin Mogahed
• The more you pray, the less you’ll panic. The more you worship, the less you worry. You’ll feel more patient and less pressured. Rick Warren
• Worry is spiritual short sight. Its cure is intelligent faith. Paul Brunto
• Worry, is in effect, saying to God I don’t trust you. John Loftness
• You can tell the size of your God by looking at the size of your worry list. The longer your list, the smaller your God.
• Every morning I spend fifteen minutes filling my mind full of God; and so there’s no room left for worry thoughts. Howard Chandler Christy
• Fear can keep us up all night long, but faith makes one fine pillow. Philip Gulley
• There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever. Mahatma Gandhi

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If God is in complete control, then our job is simply to discern God’s will…

• God’s will is manifest not only in times of suffering or disaster but in everything that happens in the world and even in the universe. All that exists and everything that occurs is an expression of God’s will. Flora A. Keshgegian
• If God has already determined the course of our lives, then our job is to discern God’s will and then obey it or fulfill it. Depending on how much of our lives we understand as scripted by God, we will view the task of discernment and obedience in different ways. Flora A. Keshgegian

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…and to actively give thanks in every situation

• If you can manage to be thankful in every situation, really believing that God is working everything out for your good, you will end up with the victory every single time. Joyce Meyer
• What discord we should bring into the universe if our prayers were all answered. Then we should govern the world and not God. And do you think we should govern it better? It gives me only pain when I hear the long, wearisome petitions of people asking for they know not what. . . . Thanks-giving with a full heart-and the rest silence and submission to the divine will! Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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If God is in complete control, we can let go of trying to control everything and flow more with life…

• As our awareness begins to shift, old patterns are beginning to break down and we lose our familiar points of reference. We need to let go and flow with events, not knowing the outcome but trusting in divine purpose. June McLeod
• If you just go with the flow, no matter what weird things happen along the way, you always end up exactly where you belong. Tom Upton
• Dancing with life is moving into the flow of our experiences – good or bad – with a feeling of harmony, trust, guidance and love. Susan Jeffers
• As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit. Emmanuel Teney
• I relax my consciousness. I unset my heart. I wear the world as a loose garment. I learn to dance with grace on the constantly shifting carpet. I go with the flow. Susan Jeffers
• I trust in the ebb and flow of the universe. I trust that life’s bigger than what I can see. I trust that there is a divine order beyond my control. And I trust that no matter what happens, I will be all right. Oprah Winfrey
• Let go of control and allow yourself to be swept away by the powerful currents of life. Leo Babauta
• Everything under heaven is a sacred vessel and cannot be controlled. Trying to control leads to ruin. Trying to grasp, we lose. Allow your life to unfold naturally. Lao Tzu
• Life is water, and we tend to push too hard, thrash about, force things, struggle. Instead, learn to float, learn to allow things to become effortless. Leo Babauta
• I really feel like life will dictate itself. You should allow it to unfold as naturally as possible. Just go with the flow. When you’re really desperate, you say a few prayers and hope for the best. That’s the way I’ve always lived my life. Shania Twain
• In pursuit of knowledge, every day something is added. In the practice of the Tao, every day something is dropped. Less and less do you need to force things, until finally you arrive at non-    When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.  True mastery can be gained by letting things go their own way.  It can’t be gained by interfering.   Lao Tzu
• Maybe the not knowing is how we move forward. Wherever I’m headed, I know it’s exactly where I’m supposed to be. Susane Colasanti

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…letting go of our attachment to results…

• Learn the magic of nonattachment. Nonattachment means: “I’ll do everything possible, I’ll put the odds in my favor, I’ll work hard and concentrate. I’ll do my best to succeed. But, if I don’t, that’s okay, too.” Richard Carlson
• The key is to have wholesome intentions without being attached to their results. Rick Hanson, Ph.D.
• Life is under no obligation to give us what we expect. Margaret Mitchell
• Map out your future, but do it in pencil. Jon Bon Jovi
• Always perform your duty efficiently and without attachment to the results, because by doing work without attachment one attains the Supreme. Bhagavad Gita
• A superior man always assumes complete responsibility, knowing that, ultimately, he has no control at all and everything is out of his hands. He acts with impeccable courage and persistence, expecting nothing but the inherent feeling of completeness he enjoys in the fullest giving of his life. David Deida

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…while also knowing anything is possible

• God can do nothing for me until I recognize the limits of what is humanly possible, allowing Him to do the impossible. Oswald Chambers
• God is able to accomplish, provide, help, save, keep, subdue… He is able to do what you can’t. He already has a plan. God’s not bewildered. Go to Him. Max Lucado
• He is the source of wisdom and knows how to govern everything concerning us. Nothing is impossible for Him, but everything is subject to His will. We must also realize that everything He does is for our benefit and we must accept it with thankfulness…as from a benefactor and a good lord even if is troublesome. For everything is done with right judgment, and God, Who is merciful, does not overlook even the smallest sadness that we suffer. Dorotheus of Gaza
• The God you serve is a way-maker. He’ll get it done, fix it, shift it, turn it. Even where there doesn’t seem to be a way.
• We forget that IMPOSSIBLE is one of God’s favorite words Max Lucado
• My job is to take care of the possible and to trust God with the impossible. Ruth Bell Graham

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A God in complete control suggests predestination which some really struggle with

• Still others argue that God determines everyone’s future, even condemning souls to eternal damnation. This is what double predestination means: that God both saves and condemns. Single predestination means that God saves some but leaves the rest aside, on their own, so to speak. Flora A. Keshgegian

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Some argue that surely God has more important things to do than micro-manage our lives

• God in heaven sits on high and plays games with us. He has plenty to do up there, what with building worlds and then knocking them down again, breaking things up and then rebuilding them, and yet he can manage to put his mind even to a little grocer in his shop or to a babe in the cradle. Shmuel Yosef Agnon
• God is too busy making the sun come up and go down and watching so the moon floats just right in the sky to be concerned with color . . . only man wants always God should be there to condemn this one and save that one. Always it is man who wants to make heaven and hell. God is too busy training the bees to make honey and every morning opening up all the new flowers for business. Bryce Courtenay

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When our lives don’t go to plan, its understandably human to question God’s whether God really care or is in control

• We are apt to believe in Providence so long as we have our own way; but if things go awry, then we think, if there is a God, he is in heaven, and not on earth. Henry Ward Beecher

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If we believe in God being in complete control, it’s a valid question to ask why seemingly bad things happen

• How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter? Woody Allen
• When we assert that God is in total control, however, we need to be able to explain, or accept as unexplainable, the things that seem to challenge that control. Flora A. Keshgegian
• When we imagine God as a man with a plan, and things go badly in our lives, we naturally assume we somehow misbehaved, somehow missed the plan, or somehow stepped out of God’s will. Persons have plans, and if someone crosses their plans, they react badly. When something bad happens, we can’t help but ask ourselves, “How did I upset the man with the plan?” Doug Hammack

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Some argue that our world seems to be far from being in a state of divine order and question whether God is therefore in complete control

• If God created everything, he’s got a serious quality control problem. George Carlin
• How much reverence can you have for a Supreme Being who finds it necessary to include such phenomena as phlegm and tooth decay in His divine system of creation? Joseph Heller
• My feeling is, quite simply, that if there is a God, He has done such a bad job that he isn’t worth discussing. Isaac Asimov
• When we make mistakes they call it evil. When God makes mistakes they call it Nature! Jack Nicholson
• I have often a suspicion God is still trying to work things out and hasn’t finished. Rebecca West
• Droughts are because God didn’t pay his water bill. Rod Schmidt
• It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods. L. Mencken
• The world is proof that God is a committee. Bob Stokes
• I prefer to think that God is not dead, just drunk. John Marcellus Huston
• God works in mysterious, inefficient, and breathtakingly cruel ways. Penn Jillette
• He — and if there is a God, I am convinced he is a he, because no woman could or would ever f**k things up this badly. George Carlin
• God may still be in His Heaven, but there is more than sufficient evidence that all is not right with the world. Irwin Edman

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Some argue that when we believe in a God in complete control, we tend to see ourselves as powerless without God…

• Prayer requires that we stand in God’s presence with open hands, naked and vulnerable, proclaiming to ourselves and to others that without God we can do nothing. Henri Nouwen
• The God who takes care of his creation as a parent and meets the needs of children who cannot do things for themselves no longer seemed appropriate in this world come of age. Flora A. Keshgegian
• To pray is to accept that we are, and always will be, wholly dependent on God for everything. Timothy Keller

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…and we relinquish taking personal responsibility for our lives

• We drop ourselves out of the loop of responsibility and assume that God is able and does what God wants in all of our lives, all of the time. We think that humans simply adjust to what God makes happen. Or, without a belief in God, we think that “fate” makes things happen. Even from this vantage point, we are still out of the loop of responsibility. Whatever happens is God’s will. Carolyn Jane Bohler
• For adults seeking to be in mutual relationships and responsible partnerships, the idea that God is in charge and that God’s will is determinative seems less and less fitting. If all is in God’s hands, then in what sense are we responsible adults in the world? Flora A. Keshgegian

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For some, these limitations are transcended by seeing God as an overseer who is less hands on…

• Another way to imagine the difference between these two approaches is to think of God as a manager. In the first view God is a total micromanager. God is “hands on” and involved in every phase of the process. In the second view God is still a manager who oversees everyone’s life and makes sure everything goes as planned, but God delegates those decisions that do not affect the overall direction and outcome. Flora A. Keshgegian
• Others believe that God’s will is in charge, although God allows more of a role for human will and decision making. God still sets the direction tion of our lives and has particular intentions for how to live those lives, but he leaves the details more up to us. Flora A. Keshgegian
• Somewhere in the infinite that He occupies, God advances and withdraws the pawns of the other games He plays, but it is too soon to worry about this one, all He need do for the present is allow things to take their natural course, apart from the occasional adjustment with the tip of His little finger to make sure some stray thought or action does not interfere with the harmony of destinies. Jose Saramago

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…allowing us to have some say, choice and responsibility over our lives

• God sets out the overall plan for our lives, but we still have choices to make. Within the plan we have say over a variety of decisions. A crude example might be that God determines that we will live in a house outside side Milwaukee, but we get to decide what color the walls will be painted, what flowers get planted, and what style of furniture we use. Flora A. Keshgegian

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• Is everything that happens really God’s will? Carolyn Jane Bohler

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• There are two kinds of directors in the theater. Those who think they are God and those who are certain of it. Rhetta Hughes