“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”
― Abraham Kuyper
God is sovereign. That’s something we’re all taught in Sunday School. Or maybe we’ve heard it from the pulpit. Or a worship song. But what does that really mean? I’m in a season where things are moving from my head to my heart. And we all have these moments, right? We go through situations where we know how we ought to be responding, but we don’t. I called my dad, a pastor, up a few weeks ago to sort of vent and complain about my situation. I told him, “I know exactly what I would say to someone if they were to come to me for advice about this.” And his brilliant response, “God is sovereign.”
The sovereignty of God is an interesting topic to discuss. On one hand, it’s very comforting. Whatever situation in life, God is in charge. God, the author and creator of this world, knows what is going to happen to us, and more importantly, God knows what is going to happen to me. This is why prayer is powerful. In our prayers, we are lifting them up to the God who knows our situation and holds it in his hands.
But the other side of this sovereignty is that it’s not in our control. Now, I of course know my humanity. I’m reminded of it everyday. I know my limits, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t try to get as far as I can to those limits. We all love to plan. But I love to plan. Before I left for college, I had my life mapped out. I was going to finish up this degree at Lee, get my MBA and JD at Northwestern, become rich and famous as a corporate attorney, and then I would get around to doing this church thing that God had called me to. Well, long story short is that God kind of interrupted that plan, and then he gave me a new one.
I went along with this plan, then in the back of my head, I started making another plan to supplement the one that God had given me. Now, this isn’t inherently a bad thing. We of course love to see what the Father is doing and partner with him. I, however, wasn’t doing this. The plan that I was formulating had very little resemblance to the God one, but I had convinced myself that it was. My fists were getting tighter and tighter as I made this plan that it took God to break open my hands and allow him to lead.
God is absolutely sovereign. He is the Lord over all of creation.
And this isn’t a bad thing.
God’s absolute rule and reign over this world is done in love. He desires to work with us and through us. He desires to empower us to bring about change. He wants us to carry out his mission of reconciliation. And this is only possible if we allow him to do so. We have to open up our hands and let him lead.
We simply acknowledge that God is sovereign, and we allow ourselves to be used and loved by him.
We open up our heads and our hearts and our hands.
God desires our lives. He made us, after all, so it is a true joy to be of service to him. He’s got the whole world in his hands, right?