God Is In Control

God is in Control

Psalm 103:19-22

I remember a particular time in my life when I was struggling a bit with discouragement, doubt, fear, and loneliness. I spent many evenings having long conversations with a close friend, to whom I poured out my heart for hours. Many times during these talks, my friend stopped me and said, “But remember, God is in control.” That statement became an anchor in my life. While in North Dakota there were many mornings, afternoons, and nights that I was discouraged. Couldn’t understand why is my opportunity and blessing here, why not closer to my family, children, and friends. NO matter how hard the winds blew or how much the adversity intensified, my soul remained anchored to that simple truth: God is in control. I am here to tell you that I couldn’t have made it up there in –40 temperatures for the last four years without God.

During that time, I discovered that when a person is able to face terrifying obstacles with the assurance that God is truly in control, an awesome sense of power, strength, assurance, and confidence begins to well up inside your heart. Sha’drach, Me’shach, and A-bed’-ne-go where able to face terrifying obstacles to worship their God. They were willing to go into the fiery furnace and risk their lives, because they knew God was in control and they weren’t going to worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Remember church God is still in Control.

The psalmist David learned this lesson through a life of ups and downs, successes, and fierce challenges. In Psalm 103: 19-22, David praises God for his dominion, crying out, “the Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom ruleth over all. Here, David-Israel’s most beloved King-recognizes his humble submission to the One who sits on the heavenly throne, the Lord of all Creation.

David also introduces us to a vital aspect of God’s character, His complete sovereignty. What do we mean by sovereignty? This is a word that denotes God’s supreme and absolute rule, control, and authority over this entire universe and every single human being. In this He is all-powerful, all knowing, and all present.

There are many people in this world who either deny God’s existence or try to excuse Him from responsibility when bad things happen. In effect, even those who may seek to defend God are saying, “God exists, BUT He didn’t allow that. That happened without His consent.” What these people do not realize is that they are insulting and rejecting His complete sovereignty over all aspects of life.

Why do people do this? Why do they seem to stumble over or overlook God’s sovereignty? First, it is clear that these people do not understand the Word of God, which clearly teaches God’s complete control over Creation. Second, their idea of God is totally unbiblical and unfounded. They try to put God in a mold of what they think He should be like, and therefore replace His righteousness with their own. As a result, if anything happens that they may claim that God had nothing to do with it.

Let me ask you a question. If God is not in control, then who is? If no one or nothing is in control, does that mean that everything that happens is the result of chance or luck? Even Christians throw around the ideas of luck or good fortune. When I hear this, I immediately know that they do not understand God’s Word. Scripture is clear: God is not in the luck business; He is in the blessing business. Your luck will run out, but the blessings of the Lord, endures forever!

If we replace God’s sovereignty with sheer luck, we are simply saying that there is no plan or order in the universe, and we are the victims of our circumstances. If that is the case, then sometimes we’ll be happy, most of the time we’ll be unfulfilled, and we will always fear the future.

God does not want us to live like this. He is in absolute control of every single event in this life. He is Master over the things that affect His purpose for each of us.

How can we be sure? Let’s open God’s word and examine some passages that reveal His sovereignty. First, let me say that we will not find a passage in the Bible where God exclaims, “Thus saith the Lord God, I am sovereign. Rather than just using words, God uses life itself to reveal his absolute control.

If we are going to say that God uses life to reveal his sovereignty, then it s natural to begin our look at the biblical evidence in the very first word of scripture, Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Think about what this means: God created everything that exists out of nothing. He put this and every other world in its place and created galaxies, solar systems, gravity, time, space… literally every speck of matter in the universe. If He set all of this in motion, then He is more than able to sustain His creation for eternity.