God Is Sovereign

God Is Sovereign

In spite of the rising tide of evil, it’s a comfort to realize that God is sovereign. Nothing will thwart His designs. Kingdoms rise and fall, but God goes on and will fulfill His purpose according to His Own counsel. He always has been sovereign, and always will be. If He ceased to be so, He would cease to be God. Blessed be His name, because He is “over all, the eternally blessed God” (Rom. 9:5 NKJV ).

It is noteworthy to see His sovereign ways with men in Scripture. In Acts we see Him going into the “academic world” and taking up that great Hebrew scholar – Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9). We see Him going into the “military world” laying His hand on Cornelius, the Roman centurion (Acts 10). We find Him going into the “political world” taking up the queen’s Ethiopian treasurer (Act 8).

But in the gospels we find God passing by the high and mighty and laying His hand on a little boy with loaves and fishes. And in the Old Testament we see how He uses a prisoner of war – the little maid in Naaman’s house (2 Ki. 5). Yes, He even takes up a harlot, Rahab (Josh. 6).

When human agencies fail, is God thwarted? No! He goes into the “animal kingdom,” and speaks through Balaam’s donkey (Num. 22). He goes into the “vegetable kingdom,” causing Aaron’s rod to bud (Num. 17), and into the “mineral kingdom,” turning dust into lice (Ex. 8).

Truly the ways of God are “past finding out.” Well might Paul write, “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?” (Rom. 11:33-34). The answer is no one, because God is His own Counselor.

All we have to do is bow to His word and will. This is the way of true blessing. We do well to heed Samuel’s injunction to Saul, “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams” (1 Sam. 15:22). May the Lord give us grace to do so until we hear His voice and see His face.

By G. Gardiner