Sovereignty

"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." - Isaiah 55:9-11

I need to be reminded as a planner that I don't have the ultimate authority in my life, even when I feel like I'm in control and make good decisions. It's hard for me to submit to anyone else's ideas or plans because I think that mine are best. I'm a detail-oriented person and think of everything ahead of time. I can multi-task and pursue several initiatives without tiring. In reality, I am able to do these things because of the grace of God. I have the capacity to do my job well and serve people in my life. I connect with God through my spiritual gifts of leadership & service, plus relating with God through activism. On the flip side, because of my fruitfulness, it's easy for me to elevate myself to be like God instead of giving Him the credit.

God's sovereignty says that He is the ultimate authority. He is above all others. He has dominion over everything. His commands are always fruitful and accomplish His original purposes. I always struggle with the idea of God's supreme power and His will, especially with the presence of evil and the brokenness of the world. I don't believe that it's God's will for evil to happen.

In that however, I tend to believe that God has to skirt around evil and redeem things from broken places, which means that I don't believe that He has supreme power. I give into the world's fears and doubts of God's ability to redeem and overcome all evil without question. In not always believing that God has supreme power over everything, it's hard for me to understand and believe that God ordains, or establishes, His will and all goodness through predestination. Ephesians 1:11 says, "In him we were also chosen having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will." 

John Piper explains this idea of predestination - "Always keep in mind that everything God does toward men...everything is his means of creating situations which function as motives to elicit the acts of will which he has ordained to come to pass. In this way He ultimately determines all acts of volition (though not all in the same way) and yet holds man accountable only for those acts which they want most to do."

He ultimately elicits, or draws out, all that He has ordained based on our cognitive processes that are affected by the Holy Spirit. But, we can resist that in the first few attempts by choosing our sin nature - what we want most to do. “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” Mark 7:20-23. However, we have to understand that even when we choose our own way first, His will ultimately prevails.

I'm starting to come to grips with God's authority and pre-determination of my life's direction and purpose. His predestination generates the work of the Holy Spirit that is transformational by nature. It comes alongside my inherent sinfulness. I am responsible for my choice to follow Christ and trust His authority. Or, I can choose to follow my sin nature and only trust myself, somewhat delaying the end result until we choose to have the Holy Spirit transform us in that decision.

We have a choice to believe that God is sovereign, truly does have authority over all evil, and that His will plays out exactly how He wants it to in all circumstances. 

"God has spoken to us through His Word, and we are responsible. Yet we have even less excuse for blaming Satan because his deception has been revealed and thus largely removed from us. We must squarely face our responsibility of choosing whom we will serve. Will it be the Lord Creator, Satan or our base human nature? Who will be sovereign in our life?" -John W. Ritenbaugh

1 Peter 2:16 - "Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God's slaves."

Luke 12:47-48 - "The servant who knows the master's will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."