Resting in God’s Sovereignty
It’s easy to attach our own limitations to God. His knowledge, power, and love are so far beyond our human capabilities to comprehend even individually, so how can we expect to understand the effects of all three? It takes understanding all three and how they work together to be able to truly find the peace and trust in His will.
For example, what good is God if He is all loving and all knowing, but limited in power to do anything to help us? This places Him as an empathetic bystander, knowing what has happened and will happen, but unable to step in and help.
If God were all loving and fully capable of anything, but limited in knowledge, how can we trust Him to use those powers for good, even with the best intentions? And worst of all, a god who can do anything and knows everything, but lacks compassion, sounds more like a really dangerous super villain than someone we can trust.
These three attributes of God do not just add to each other, they compound His power. He knows everything, has the power to do anything, and how does He use these unlimited abilities? He devotes it all to demonstrating His unlimited love for us.
Jesus demonstrated this perfectly on the Cross and in His resurrection. He showed His knowledge in His teachings and predictions of His own death, and His power in His resurrection. But why did He do it? So we would all come to fear the wrath of the Father and finally start obeying His commands? No. To free us from our inability to obey and to prove, once and for all, that He loves us and can, and will, do anything to prove that.
When we face challenges and uncertainties, it’s easy to doubt God. But when we do, we can ask ourselves which part we are doubting. Do we think our circumstances surprised Him? Do we think He can’t do anything about it? Or do we think He doesn’t love us enough to help? Knowing that all three are false leaves us with only one option. To trust Him and enjoy the blessing of knowing that how He handles it will be best.
The Answer is Christ
I saw the other day that a church got in trouble for displaying a “Jesus in ‘24” sign outside of their church. As Christians, doesn’t it sound amazing to think of what it would be like if we could elect Jesus Christ as our next President? Can you even imagine it? Lovingkindness for all, peace and joy abounding, generosity and freedom overflowing behind the leadership of the greatest figure the earth has ever known.
Here’s the problem: He’d never get elected. Want to hear something even worse? You probably wouldn’t vote for Him. And neither would I.
Consider His platform: He’d close every “reproductive healthcare” facility in the country and impose a tax of, I don’t know, around 10 percent, on all Christians that would go directly to funding a new program supporting unmarried single mothers.
He’d deport every illegal alien on day 1 and pass immigration reform that simplified the process so much that twice as many new immigrants showed up on day 2. This would throw a huge wrinkle into the economy. But He wouldn’t care. He’d just dip into His Christian tax fund to make sure everyone was provided for (including the single pregnant women arriving from Mexico).
He’d appoint a hippie from California as His press secretary to communicate the vision He had for His people and invite the most ruthless and greedy Wall Street executives to Presidential dinners at the White House, setting quite the scene for when the LGBTQ+ leaders showed up with the best seats at the table.
As Christians, we might know that Christ is the answer to the world’s problems. But we only like to think about how He’d fix the problems WE HAVE with the world. How can we be His hands and feet if we only think of how His grace extends to our needs? The right hand might be on the opposite side of the left, but neither one can scratch itself. Just sayin’.