Sometimes God’s futility works as a saving futility. What do I mean by that? [I am referring to] some of the stories that a number of you can tell. No, you are not nations, but some of you—as you went along in your life trying to establish your own security, trying to make your own kingdom—were brought to a dead end, and God, for some reason, does not allow you to reach your goal. That futility enters in. He makes your kingdom,
Ralph Davisfall into ruins,but that was the reason and the occasion for you seeking the kingdom of God and submitting yourself to the kingship of Jesus. Sometimes that futility, that frustration that God places in your way, is a saving futility and turns you from your own self-idolatry to the living God.1
9 “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be safe from the reach of harm!