Have you read the headlines?
Fauci Warns of COVID-19 Surge
Millions of Mail-in Ballots at Risk
U.S. Surpasses 9 Million COVID-19 Cases
Politics Pit Neighbor against Neighbor as Election Day Looms
Lawyers Brace for Court Battles in Key US States
Exciting times, huh? Or crazy times?
The good news on this Sunday is that God is in control.
I have pieced together four excerpts below to help you contemplate this wonderfully good news this Sunday morning as you prepare for your worship and week.
God Is In Control
From the Editor
I appreciate Psalm 103:19, which reads: “The Lord has established His throne in heaven, And His kingdom rules over all.” This is great news for all of us.
God’s control includes everything. The world is His kingdom. He rules over nature, history, angels, demons, governments, kingdoms, and world events.
The Sovereignty of God by John M Frame
The sovereignty of God is the fact that he is the Lord over creation; as sovereign, he exercises his rule. This rule is exercised through God’s authority as king, his control over all things, and his presence with his covenantal people and throughout his creation. The divine name, Yahweh, expresses this sovereign rule over against the claims of human kings, such as Pharaoh (Exod. 3:14). Because God is tri-personal, however, his sovereign control is not impersonal or mechanical, but is the loving and gracious oversight of the king of creation and redemption.
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His control means that everything happens according to his plan and intention. Authority means that all his commands ought to be obeyed. Presence means that we encounter God’s control and authority in all our experience, so that we cannot escape from his justice or from his love. When theologians talk about “divine sovereignty,” they usually have the first of these in mind, his control. Indeed, the Bible teaches that God controls all things. He has an eternal plan for all of nature and history (Eph. 1:9–11). When God meets with Moses in Exodus 3 and reveals his name Yahweh, that name, God’s Lordship, reveals to Moses that God, not Pharaoh, rules over the affairs of Egypt and Israel:…
10 Key Bible Verses on God’s Sovereignty by Crossway
Job 42:2
“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”
In his second speech, the Lord asks Job particularly about power in relation to himself and other creatures he has made (40:6–41:34). Job, directly aware of God as never before, responds by humbly submitting to God’s sovereignty and penitently despising himself for his earlier wild words (42:1–6). While Job had rightly defended himself against his friends’ accusations of sin and had defined his circumstances as being governed by God, he had drawn conclusions about what his affliction meant that did not account sufficiently for what was hidden in the knowledge and purposes of God.
Plunge Your Mind into the Ocean of God’s Sovereignty by John Piper
Sometimes we need to plunge our minds into the ocean of God’s sovereignty. We need to feel the weight of it, like deep and heavy water pressing in against every pore, the deeper we go. A billion rivers of providence pour into this ocean. And God himself gathers up all his countless deeds — from eternity to eternity — and pours them into the currents of his infallible revelation. He speaks, and explains, and promises, and makes his awesome, sovereign providence the place we feel most reverent, most secure, most free.
Sometimes we need to be reminded by God himself that there are no limits to his rule. We need to hear from him that he is sovereign over the whole world, and everything that happens in it. We need his own reminder that he is never helpless, never frustrated, never at a loss. We need his assurance that he reigns over ISIS, terrorism, Syria, Russia, China, India, Nigeria, France, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, and the United States of America — every nation, every people, every language, every tribe, every chief, president, king, premier, prime minister, and politician, great or small.
Sometimes we need to hear specific statements from God himself about his own authority. We need God’s own words. It is the very words of God that have unusual power to settle our nerves, and make us stable, wise, and courageous.
God’s Voice
On the one hand, hearing the voice of God is like a frightened child who hears the voice downstairs, and realizes that daddy’s home. Whatever those other sounds were, it’s okay. Daddy’s home.
On the other hand, it feels like the seasoned troops, dug in at the front line of battle, and about to be overrun by the enemy. But then they get word that a thousand impenetrable tanks are rushing to their aid. They are only one mile away. You will be saved, and the enemy will not stand.
Vague generalizations about the power of God do not have the same effect as the very voice of God telling us specifically how strong he is, how pervasive his power, how universal his authority, how unlimited his sovereignty. And that our times are in his hands.
So let’s listen. Let’s treat the Bible as the voice of God. Let’s turn what the Bible says about God into what God says about God — which is what the Bible really is — God speaking about God.
And as we listen, let us praise him. There is no other fitting way to listen to God’s exaltation of God. This is what happens to the human soul when we plunge into the ocean of God’s sovereignty.
We praise you, O God, that all authority in the universe belongs to you.
“There is no authority except from me, and those that exist have been instituted by me.” (Romans 13:1)
“You, Pilate, would have no authority over my Son at all unless it had been given you from me.” (John 19:11)
We stand in awe, O God, that in your freedom you do all that you please and all that you plan.
“Whatever I please, I do, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.” (Psalm 135:6)
“I work all things according to the counsel of my will.” (Ephesians 1:11)
“I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’” (Isaiah 46:9–10)
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We submit with reverence to you, O God, because, through your Son, you remove and install the rulers of the world.
“Wisdom and might belong to me. I change times and seasons; I remove kings and set up kings.” (Daniel 2:20–21)
“I loose the bonds of kings and bind a waistcloth on their hips.” (Job 12:18)
“I sent my angel and struck Herod down, because he did not give me glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.” (Acts 12:23)
On This Sunday…
On this Sunday let’s all take a moment in the midst of this week’s national headlines to rest, rejoice, and revere God’s sovereignty. Friend, on this Sunday, you can trust God with all these things. He is in control and trustworthy. May God grant us the faith to trust in Him.
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