God’s Sovereignty

God’s Sovereignty

“To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.

Isaiah 40:25

IN WORD God is in control. We’ve all heard it before, probably hundreds of times. We know it doesn’t mean that He handles us like puppets, but we also know it doesn’t mean that this world is a random free-for-all. Somewhere in between those two extremes is an existence that is under the sovereign hand of our Creator.

What does God’s sovereignty entail? According to Isaiah, it means that “people are like grasshoppers” (v. 22). It means that the rulers of this world are pitifully small in God’s eyes (v. 23). It means that all the stars our eyes can see are under the watchful eye of the One who created them with just His voice (v. 26). It means that God has no equal.

That’s great news, but it doesn’t make us feel any better if we don’t learn to count on it in the hard times. We see injustice in this world, we feel pain, and we suffer from our sin as well as the sin of others. It sometimes looks as if the world is under the sovereign hand of no one—that it is spinning recklessly out of control. And when it spins hard, it takes a lot of faith to confirm in our hearts what we know in our minds: God is in control.

How does it help to know that? If we know He is in control, we can follow the instructions of Scripture. We can be meek and humble because we know He is our defender. We can suffer unjustly because we know He will bring about justice in the end. We can shun futile hedonism because we’re in this life for eternity, not for the short run. We can count on the promises He has made, because only a sovereign God could work them out. We can know beyond the shadow of a doubt that He will work all things together for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). Why? Because He’s sovereign.

IN DEED God’s sovereignty is a hard pill to swallow sometimes, but it’s infinitely more comforting than the alternative—a random, reckless world. We can be sure, as this world spins wildly, that a sovereign God is working all things out for His good purposes—even our own lives.

No one can dissuade God from His purposes; nothing can turn Him aside from His plans.

—A. W. TOZER