God is in control. The concept of free will is not exactly what we think, since before God changes our heart we are not capable of choosing Him (that isn’t exactly being free, is it) and after He changes our heart our sin nature still tries to get us to rebel (still not really free).
But we are free to make decisions and choices in life and there is a bit of mystery about how God’s sovereignty and our will work together. I suspect it has to do with God being way bigger and way more powerful than we can imagine which is why we can’t see how it works. Plenty of good books out there that talk about this so I won’t rehash.
I’m here to talk about God’s sovereignty and why that should encourage us to trust Him and stop worrying about things we can’t control. Because He is in control and He can control everything.
Ah, another argument with God’s sovereignty. Bad things happen to people. So, either He isn’t able to control everything or He isn’t good. Bah. He can and does control everything and He is good. But His end goal is not the same as ours. We want a life of ease and comfort to prove God loves us. God wants us to be changed into the image of His Son as proof that He loves us. That means we have to give up this idea of self-sufficiency, recognize our complete and utter need for Him for every breath we take, and turn to Him in all things, most importantly as our savior and redeemer. We, being stiff-necked and stubborn, take a lot of work to get there. And we learn better in tough circumstances than in easy ones.
I believe God is involved in the tiniest details. The parable about the sparrows and the # of hairs on our head and other phrases in the Bible encourage me to see it this way. God, again, is bigger and more mighty than we can imagine, so He can handle all the details of all the lives here on earth. I have to struggle to keep from putting God in a box with limits.
That means, that while God is not the author of sin, and many terrible things happen because the world is a fallen place since the sin of Adam, God still uses those sins and terrible things to work for our good. And remember, our good to God is not the same thing as our thought of a good, easy, comfortable life. He isn’t interested in our being too comfortable here. He wants us to long for a place and time where we will not sin and we will know Him and know that we are completely known, and have eternal life. When we long for that and strive for as much of that as we can have on this side of the veil, then we are in line with His will.
That’s what I want – to be home with Him.
