God Is Sovereign!

 

Here is one of God’s beautiful creations, a cardinal, who visits my feeder daily.

God is Sovereign. We hear that statement often, but have you ever stepped back to take a look at what that means? Sovereign means King, Lord, Master over everything, in control, independent; or to boil it all down it means Supreme Authority.

God then is the Supreme Authority. He is the One and Only God who created the heavens and the earth. He created all that was created and owns it all. He is free to choose to do as he pleases with His creation.

(Psalms 103:19 NASB) The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all.

(Psalms 115:3 NASB) But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.

(Psalms 135:6 NASB) Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps.

(1 Timothy 6:15 NASB) which He will bring about at the proper time–He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,

According the Bible, God is in control of everything, but how does that relate to us in our everyday lives?

We live in a society where we are taught from an early age that we must have good self-esteem. We must think highly of ourselves, and do our own thing. We learn that we can do anything we put our minds too and become anything we want to be. We need to spend a great deal of time in looking within to “find ourselves.” They tell us to grab onto life as you only go around once and to go for the gusto. Live, drink, and be merry; that’s the motto of the day. Also, we hear, “if it feels good, then do it.” Or, “it doesn’t matter what you do as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone.” There are no absolutes. It’s all about me! We need to be entertained. We depend on ourselves. These attitudes lead to self-reliance, and pride.

As Christians we need to remember that we are in this world but not of this world. This is Satan’s world. We need to be extra careful that we are not caught up in Satan’s traps to get us to be self-indulgent and selfish.  We need to control the desires for worldly pleasures.

We fool ourselves if we think we are in control, because God rules over everything, even our best laid plans.

When we realize that God is sovereign over everything we need to submit to God and surrender our lives totally to Him. When an enemy surrenders to his captors he totally gives up. He gives himself and all he has over to the captor to do with as he pleases. That is how we are to surrender to God. This is an amazing lesson to learn.

Here is the best part.  When we realize that God is in charge of everything we no longer have to worry and fret.  I once was the world’s worse worrier.  I often say if there were an Olympic event for worry, I would have won the gold metal.  That was before I learned that God is Sovereign.  My worries effected my health to such a degree that I developed panic disorder and agoraphobia.  I became homebound and a slave to worry and fear!  Life doesn’t have to be that way and it shouldn’t be that way.  I leaned to trust and depend on God because he is in charge anyway.   It is a wonderful freeing thing to learn God is Sovereign.  Worry can’t change anything!

Now, whenever I have challenges in my life, I remind myself to surrender.  Just give up, and allow God to work things out in his way.  It is so wonderful to have peace in the midst of a storm.

God wants the very best for us and will give us blessings that we’ve never dreamed about, but before he can give them we must bow the knee in submission to him.

I read a good Christian classic recently called Absolute Surrender, by Andrew Murray. If you’ve never read this book I’d highly recommend it. This book was first published in 1895, and it’s wisdom has stood the test of time.

Andrew Murray said, “If we totally surrender ourselves to God, we never need know anything but God’s good.”

That doesn’t mean everything will be rosy all the time, but it means that when we are sold out to God it doesn’t matter to us anymore what comes our way because we have God’s good intentions on our side. Even what we think are bad things work out for good with God. God is dependable and we can trust him.

(Proverbs 3:5 NASB) Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.

As the Word says, we need to put our trust in the Lord. He is the Almighty One who knows the beginning from the end. He knows all about us and what our lives hold for us. We cannot figure things out on our own. We are not smart enough for that. But, he wants us to surrender to Him, put our trust in Him, and realize He is in control! Not us!

Questions for Discussion:

1. Are you having a rough time in your life right now? If so, do you need to surrender to God?

2. Do you realize that God is sovereign? What does this realization do for your life?

3. I’m writing from the USA. I realize this blog goes throughout the whole world. I’d like to hear if your society where you live today is like mine, in the sense that people are so concerned with “self,” and “pleasures,” instead of God’s will?

Click on the word “comment ” below if you would like to take part in this discussion. What you share will be of great help to others.