One thing I have been challenged about very recently is the sovereignty of God. Of course, I'm a conservative evangelical, I'm fully signed up to predestination as being what the Bible says. The phrase 'God is in control' is one I use often.
Yet I still find myself forgetting that in the everyday of my life. I idolise an easy, stress free life. So when things go wrong, I blow my top. Even that phrase 'gone wrong' isn't quite in line with God in control is it?
Don't get me wrong, we are not puppets on a string, we are morally responsible for the mistakes we make - the many attempts to tell our Creator how to run the universe. But, life going the way we don't want it to does not make God any less in control.
In church at the moment, we are studying the book of Esther. It's a great story, and one that does not contain God's name in the text. But the absence of God's name doesn't mean the absence of God's work. Because, His name is what He does, what He does is work. He rescues.
We've just finished chapter 2, and I'm in the process of writing a sermon and Bible study on chapter 4 ready for two Sunday's time. One thing that has struck me is just how in control God is. How big He is. How in control He is.
And another familiar pattern emerges. I find that, when I preach, I suck at living what I'm preaching that week. I mean, that's obvious, but God in His kindness makes me more aware of my failings as I come to preach His word. So when I have been preaching about God's sovereignty, I have SUCKED at remembering it. But God, in His sovereignty, has been I think reminding me of His sovereignty very acutely. I won't go into details, but this has been a very hard week, where, basically, everything I thought I was going to do over the next few years has gone up in the air. The proverbial rug has been pulled out from under my feet.
But God has been reminding me of His kindness, and His control. As I have been reading the brilliant story of Esther, and God's rescue of His people through her actions, and His work putting people in the right place at the right time, another favourite verse has come to mind.
Paul writes this:
"And we know in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."
God works for the good (not the nice time) of His people, to change and grow them according to His purpose: to make us more and more like Jesus, who died for us.
God really is in control. He works for the good of His people, in the details of every person's story, for His glory. Think on how you became a Christian. How did God do it? What people did He put in your life? What circumstance 'went wrong? How did He work to bring you to Him? It's an encouraging thing to think about - and to ask people at church about.
God is in control. Pray for His help to remember that. Praise God
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