Tuesday, July 3, 2012

God is Sovereign!!!


God is sovereign. I know this, but for years I hated the thought of it. A lot of times the sovereignty of God is an avoided topic. Because then comes the famous question, “If God is sovereign, why does He let bad things happen?”

And this is exactly what I wrestled with for the majority of my life. I knew God was sovereign. Even as a non Christian, I had no doubt that God was the one in control.

So I thought, if God is going to let bad things happen then he just must not care about people. I was resentful and bitter towards God, picturing Him up in the sky watching our sufferings and shrugging His shoulders indifferently.

Then I became a Christian my freshman year of college. For the first time in a really really long time, I began to see God as loving, comforting, and kind. But with this new, kind God, how was I to explain away all the hurts that I saw around me and felt within me?

Then, in a weak moment, a thought popped into my head, “Either God is not sovereign, and thus too weak to save you, or He is sovereign, and just doesn’t care enough to do so.”

I knew God was sovereign, but I also knew I couldn’t be at peace with a God who plans for my suffering.

I lost a lot of sleep worrying over this, until I was assured by someone very wise that God never plans evil.

When looking it up myself I found the well loved verse,

Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

But I still had that nagging, painful feeling in my heart whenever I thought about God’s sovereignty. I now know that God doesn’t plan evil, but the though of Him not stopping it, was still too heart wrenching to think about. So I just shoved it to the back of my mind and tried to forget about it. But these past couple months it kept popping up.

I had been very worried about following through on something God was calling me to do but I finally did and found so much peace. And I was so extremely relieved and grateful. I just looked up to heaven and bursting with joy, thought, ‘God you are sovereign.’

And then I had to pause, surprised at my own thinking. Had I just thought of God’s sovereignty with delight instead of horror?

Over these months without me even knowing it, God has been changing my way of thinking. I’ve always struggled with trusting God, and I have learned to without even realizing it. One of the things I struggled with the most now is beginning to come to me as easily as breathing.

I have now began to understand some truths. God has the whole world in his hands. Not in a tight fist, ready to squish it at any moment. But in a gentle embrace, delighting in our joys, and weeping with our sorrows. What really cut to my heart was once having someone tell me, “As painful as that hurt is to you, you will never be able to understand how deeply it hurts the heart of God.”

I still don’t understand why God doesn’t prevent some things from happening, why He allows some wrongs. I know that we live in a broken world and that God refuses to make us robots and allows us to choose to accept Him or not.

But I have come to be okay with that because I know God’s character. I don’t need to know why certain things happen. Because I trust God. God’s purpose is always good! Whatever He chooses to do with my life, I can be assured that it is for my eventual good, and will be used to help glorify His name. Im not so scared anymore, knowing that God has everything under control. I feel safe, like I don’t have to worry.




God can always be trusted to do what is best. There is not a single situation that God cannot redeem, that He cant use for His good purposes. There is not a single thing that happens to us that just goes to waste. God is using EVERYTHING.

God is my father, I know He has my bet interests at heart. So I can finally relax. I can finally stop trying to control every single thing. It feels so freeing to hand it over to God.

God is sovereign, my heart is reassured.

Song recommendation:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKJ2hKe2QX4