Our church-wide reading this week focused on the Sovereignty of God. (pages 19-27)
https://pastorjonbeck.com/reading-list/ (for more info about the book and how to order one for yourself)
Central Idea
God is in control. He has a purpose and a plan for you, and He has the power to carry out that plan.
Psalm 33:10–11 (ESV)
10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. 11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.
James 4:13–17 (ESV)
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
God is in control; He is sovereign. He does whatever pleases Him and determines whether we can do what we have planned. This is the essence of God’s sovereignty: His absolute independence to do as He pleases and His absolute control over the actions of all His creatures. No creature, person, or empire can either thwart His will or act outside the bounds of His will.[1]
In chapter 1 I stated that, for us to trust God in times of adversity, we must believe in God’s sovereignty, His love, and His wisdom. Of these three truths, the sovereignty of God seems to be questioned the most frequently and most stridently. It seems we will allow God to be anywhere except upon His throne ruling His universe according to His good pleasure and His sovereign will.[2]
Proverbs 16:9 – In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.
Proverbs 19:21 – Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.
Proverbs 21:30 – There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.
Ecclesiastes 7:13 – Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked?
Lamentations 3:37 – Who can speak and have it happen if the LORD has not decreed it?
James 4:15 – You ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
We make plans, but those plans can succeed only when they are consistent with God’s purpose. No plan can succeed against Him. No one can straighten what He makes crooked or make crooked what He has made straight. No emperor, king, supervisor, teacher, or coach can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not first decreed to either make it happen or permit it to happen. No one can say, “I will do this or that,” and have it happen if it is not part of God’s sovereign will. What an encouragement, what a stimulus to trusting God this aspect of God’s sovereignty should be to us[3]
[1] Jerry Bridges, Trusting God (NavPres, 2023), 24.
[2] Jerry Bridges, Trusting God (NavPres, 2023), 24.
[3] Jerry Bridges, Trusting God (NavPres, 2023), 26–27.