If there is one thing God has convinced me of this past year, it is that He is sovereign. I know if anyone happens to read this, they may think, "Of course God is sovereign! What do you mean God convinced you of it? Any Christian already knows that!" It's true, any Christian you meet will tell you God is sovereign, but when God really starts to lay this fact on your heart, you begin to realize how incredible it truly is. Once you realize that every little event that comes to pass is a result of God's providence, your point of view on everything changes. You realize that your every breath is a gift from your Creator, that the sun rises in the East only at God's command, that the only reason you awoke to a new dawn this morning is that it pleased God that you should live on this Earth for one day more.
Truly, there are few things of more importance to a Christian than a correct attitude towards God's sovereignty. So many of our sins come as a result of our having a problem with this all-encompassing doctrine. For example, when we complain, we are really saying, "God, I know you are sovereign in all things, but right now I think my will is a better idea!" When we worry, we are thinking, "God, I know you are supposedly sovereign, but I don't really think you are taking care of this area in my life, and even if you are, you won't take care of it the way I want you to." When we covet, we are saying, "God, I know you are sovereign, but I'm not happy with what you've ordained for me and I think you ought to have given me something a little better."
Sin issues aside, I think the fact that God is sovereign is really the most comforting thing about Him. He will always do His will, and His will is always good. How comforting it is to know that, though we sin and make mistakes, our depraved nature will never triumph over God's perfect providence. We can never make a mess of our lives so big that God cannot clean it up if He sees fit to do so. Even Satan cannot harm us without God's permission. (Remember how Satan needed God's approval before attacking Job?) We can know that there is no event in our lives that God is not in complete control over. I like the way Charles Spurgeon said it: "There is no event, however base and vile, however grand and good, that is not within the management of the Dread Supreme."
I will share one small example from my own life, of how much of a comfort God's sovereignty can be. I am nineteen years old, and I do not have a driver's license. I'm a terrible driver. I took my driver's test at eighteen and failed miserably. This set me into a panic. I didn't know anyone else as old as me who didn't have a license. I would worry excessively (and still do sometimes, I admit) that I would never get a license and would have to nag my parents for rides until the day I die. Every so often, I would have bouts of extreme anxiety over the fact that I don't have a license. In the middle of one worse than normal panic attack, God reminded me of His sovereignty. He knows I am a bad driver. He knows I failed my test, and He also knows how very convenient it would be if I had a license. He knows all of this, and He is in control of all of this. For whatever reason, God just did not see fit that driving should come as easy to me as it does for others. My failure isn't something that God is sitting in Heaven shaking His head over. He was with me the day I failed my test, and if He had wanted me to, I would have passed. If it had been His will for me to pass, then nothing, not even my naturally bad driving habits, would have kept me from passing. While I may never know God's reasons, I do know that He does have a reason, and that it is a good one.
The problems come in when we decide that God's will isn't in agreement with our own. We may know that God's will is perfect, but our human desires set in so strong sometimes that we cannot think clearly. We just can't imagine that what God knows is good for us can be any better than what we want. In times like these we must remind ourselves over and over of God's promises: "...the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God, and we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose." Once we can beat this knowledge into our thick skulls, we Christians can really just look forward to whatever God brings our way.
I'll end with a story I recently heard from a pastor that has always stuck with me. A shepherd was asked by a traveler, "What do you think the weather will be like tommorrow?" The shepherd said, "Oh, it will be whatever pleases me." The traveler asked, "What do you mean by that?" The shepherd answered, "Well, the weather we get will be whatever pleases God, and whatever pleases God pleases me." May we strive to have a similar attitude in our lives towards God's sovereignty.
~Susan
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