The Sovereignty of God

  As I have struggled through some difficult things in the past year or so (and continue to struggle), I have often sought the council people I consider to be godly and wise.  While I have gotten some help from them, I have noticed something that makes me ponder.  I have heard a lot of phrases like, “I can’t believe a God of righteousness would do that,”  “Logically, it has to be this way,”  “I don’t think . . . ,”  “I feel . . . ,” and more.  Some of these phrases have come out of my own mouth.  Lately, I have been rethinking them, though.  

Does it really matter what I think, feel, or reason to be true?  I’m not sure it does.  What really matters is what God thinks, feels, and reasons to be true.  And we find that in His Word.  That means that, if we believe something, we had better be able to back it up with Scripture.  It also means that if we believe something, even if we have believed it and been taught it for decades, but then the Holy Spirit shows us through Scripture that we are wrong, we better change what we believe to line up with Scripture.  If we just can’t seem to do that and are working hard to make Scripture line up with what we think, then we had better examine ourselves, looking for the arrogance that makes us think that we are right and being right is the more important than submitting to God.

Sometimes, we will find things in Scripture that we don’t really understand, but, because His Word tells us it is true, we must hold to be true.  For me, election is one of those things.  I have spent most of my life being taught about choice and free will, but the more I study Scripture, the more I see election.  I know that choice and free will work into it somehow, but ultimately, God chooses who is His.  He does all the work of salvation from beginning to end because of His grace and only because of His grace.  I don’t understand this, but I know it is true because His Word tells me it is true.  I’m sure there are lots of examples of this type of quandary.  The main thing is to remember Who is the One in charge.  Who makes the decisions of how things are to be.  Who created all things.  And that is the sovereign Lord of the universe, the One who is above all, before all, and created all.  We need to ponder passages of Scripture like Colossians 1, Isaiah 40, Job 38-41, and the Psalms.  These passages help us to remember just how big God is and how small we are.  They help us to remember that He is sovereign, even when His ways don’t make sense to us, because His ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I am not . . .

OK, it has been a while since I blogged, but today I am feeling a little inspired. I am struggling mightily, again. Guilt. All the mistakes of the past. All the mistakes of the present. Guilt. I was listening to some music this morning, trying to focus on praise, when a song came on talking about how much I was forgiven. And grace washed over me, again. I am forgiven. Right there in the laundry room, while folding to mountains of clothes, I said it, out loud - "Go away, Satan, and take your guilt with you! I am forgiven, and that is all there is to it!" Peace. Followed quickly by my usual need to find a friend of my childhood. I do some googling, again. Maybe success this time, maybe not. But why do I have this terrible need to keep looking to people of my past? What am I clinging to? What am I running from? This week is a restful break. Don't get me wrong, there is still work to do. But instead of having school, we are just going to do some cleaning and relax a little. Y
Read more

Crushed, but not broken

Anyone who really knows me (the few there are), knows that I love children's literature. One thing I love about really good, usually older, children's books is the parallels that God reveals about Himself to me through these timeless treasures. The more I study God's Word and commmune with His heart, the more I see these. Here is my most recent discovery: The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams is a great example. Hebrews 5:8 says "Although He was a son, He learned obedience through what He suffered." As I pondered this truth, and the truth that our own suffering is for our good and His glory, I was a little confused. Why do we have to suffer and what does that really mean? Then I read this book, and the Spirit spoke clarification to my heart. In this book, a young boy receives a stuffed rabbit for Christmas. The rabbit is beautiful and nice, however, not played with at first. Then, as the boy loves the rabbit, it becomes shabby and suffers because of its missha
Read more

Psalm 127

  127   (Biblical text in italics) This is a “wisdom psalm” written by King Solomon.   The ESV Study Bible gives a few helpful themes: “without the Lord’s blessing, human toil is worthless” and “diligence is neither greed nor restless anxiety.” 1 Unless Yahweh builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless Yahweh watches the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain. When we try to do things ourselves, be it control things about our home or protect those we love, we end up failing.  We must trust the Lord to do all these things and be about the business of obediently following Him, no matter what He asks us to do.  We must work in faith, trusting God with the outcome of our labors. 2 It is in vain that you rise up early, That you sit out late, O you who eat the bread of painful labors; For in this manner, He gives sleep to His beloved. The Lord doesn’t want us to be focused strictly on busyness and “getting ahead” or even on protection of those around us.  He give
Read more