Nobody is born a lover of the Sovereignty of God; we are all born lovers of the sovereignty of ourselves.
A crisis comes – that’s when we learn about God’s sovereignty. It’s usually not a very easy thing to learn, is it? God’s sovereignty sometimes is a very scary thing…
Suffering… pain… adversity… God uses afflictions to heal both saint and sinner – if we don’t understand this, if we don’t believe God orders all of our steps, our faith will be shipwrecked. We will crash!
The most important thing to God is Him being paramount in the hearts of His people. He must be first. He must be #1. God wants to magnify His worth in your life. He is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him. I want to spend a little time talking about God’s Sovereignty in our suffering. First let’s look at the book of Job, because it’s the main book in the Bible where suffering comes to a head. Afflictions aren’t always here to punish, but to save and heal…
“He also opens their ear to instruction, and commands that they turn from iniquity.” Job 36: 10
(Oh yes, suffering has lifted me out of my spiritual slumber.)
“He delivers the poor in their affliction, and opens their ears in oppression.” Job 36: 15
How many can testify to Him delivering in our affliction. I can.
And then there are Jobs three friends who accuse Job of having a hidden sin. To say that our Sovereign God does not bring suffering on the righteous, is just bad theology.
In Job, we learn that suffering and prosperity are not distributed in proportion to the evil or good people do. Because we don’t have the complete story, let us be slow to judge each other’s hearts whether we lost a job, or a disease, etc. During our most difficult times, we too like Job, must remember our position before the eternal, holy, incomprehensible God. For those who believe in the love and wisdom of a sovereign God, even a terrible confinement can be a place of building trust.
*Stay tuned for more on this topic