Sovereignty

Our home group is doing a study called "Gripped by the Greatness of God" by Dr. James MacDonald.  (James was our pastor for several years before we moved to a smaller branch about 5 years ago.)  Our group started this study last year but we never got through the first chapter. This year, we've purposed to make our group time a priority and it's been a real blessing.  I have to say that the timing of this study has been perfect; definitely by God's design.  

We are living in such uncertain times, and if you are like me, there are times that I question what God is doing through it all.  I want to be completely sold out, totally trusting in God's ways and purposes, but I'll be honest.  Some days it's hard.  Some days I'm fearful.  Some days I just don't do very well in the trust department.

Our memory verse this week is Romans 8:28:  We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

What are your circumstances?  Where does life find you today?  How are you responding?  Are you tempted to question God's goodness and sovereignty?  Pastor James says that in his years of ministry, this is the area where people struggle the most.  They ask, "God!  What are you doing?"  Ask yourself this question:  Am I going to embrace the life my sovereign God has allowed?  Or am I going to live a life of bitterness?  This is a hard question, but my faith (and my God) demands an answer.

Corrie ten Boom is one of my real-life heroes.  Her courage in the midst of the hell she lived through at the Ravensbruck concentration camp came from one place and one place only:  Her trust in a good, loving, sovereign God.   As Corrie's sister Betsie lay dying, she described God's sovereignty in a way that changed Corrie forever:

"I don't know why God allows suffering, Corrie, all I know is across the blueprint of our lives, God wrote the word Ravensbruck....Tell them, Corrie - tell them that no pit is so deep that He is not deeper still."  

We don't get to choose what the blueprint says.  Only God does.  But let those words stick in your heart today and in the days to come.  No pit is so deep that He is not deeper still.

"I am the Lord, and there is no other; 

The One forming light and creating darkness, 

causing well-being and creating calamity; 

I am the Lord who does all these."  ~Isaiah 45:6-7