Tag Archives: Sovereign God

Where is God in your place of emptiness?

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Years ago, a team of astronomers at the University of Minnesota announced they found a hole in the universe in the Eridanus constellation. They say it has no galaxies, few stars, not even dark matter. It’s just an empty place they say is a billion light years across.  I think it means that IF you could travel at the speed of light, it would take one billion human years to go from one end of this hole to another. Who can comprehend it? Only God, because he created that hole and the entire universe and everything in it. His divine power and wisdom keeps it running.

 

I’ve reading through the book of Job lately. Job knew something about empty places. As you may recall, Job was a wealthy and well respected man. But then he lost all his possessions, his children, and his health. He was only left with his criticizing ‘friends’ and a nagging wife. Covered in boils, he was in unspeakable pain every day. Yet Job accepted his condition as allowed by his sovereign God. He spoke truth about God to his so-called friends despite their constant battling against him. What a vast empty place that must have been!

 

After repeated discourses between Job and his accusers, the Lord spoke to Job, reminding him of who was God and who wasn’t. “Where you were when I laid the earth’s foundations? Who marked off its dimensions? Can you bind the chain of the Pleiades? Can you loosen Orion’s Belt?” (Interesting that God points Job, in his place of emptiness, to the Orion constellation which borders the Eridanus constellation where this large empty hole was found.)  Essentially, God brought Job to the end of himself. Job turned to God and God restored him. Not only him but twice his wealth and more sons and daughters.

 

Can you associate with Job in your suffering? And after your endless questions and cries for help, after all your own reasoning and you find yourself in a dark empty place…can you surrender everything to God? I know this is painful because I’ve gone there myself. But when we tell God, “I’m tired of being bitter, angry, lonely, always in pain, full of grief, always anxious and afraid, I desperately need your help,” he is ready to change us. When we stop resisting his leading and going our own way, he will restore us. It’s a matter of telling ourselves every day (and throughout the day), “Yet still I will believe you Lord. Yet still I will trust you. Yet still I will claim your promise of assurance, peace, love and so much more. I will let your goodness replace my harmful thoughts and actions. My beliefs will be made evident through my thoughts, words, and behaviors. I will walk out of my self-imposed prison of rebellion and find freedom in following you.”

 

The choice is ours. Where are you going to turn in your place of emptiness?

 

 

Resting and wrestling

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John Piper writes: “There is a restful side to the Christian life. “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest,” Jesus said in Matthew 11:28. “Be anxious for nothing . . . let your requests be made known to God . . . and the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). There is rest and peace in the Christian soul.

 

But there is also wrestling. Jesus said in Luke 13:24, “Strive <wrestle/struggle> to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” At the end of his life, Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.” Keeping the faith is a fight to be fought and a race to be run.”

 

We’ve written quite a bit about the resting side of the Christian life. Unless you are facing mighty challenges yourself, who wants to pursue the kind of suffering that comes from a wrestling life? But the two are interrelated. We wrestle with our response to life challenges with the goal of finding rest. And, as we’ve commented before, we find rest in these trials because Christ-in-us has already won the battle and assured our victory, IF (and this is a very strong IF):

 

IF you are willing to believe God at His Word, even when it flies in the face of your present circumstances.

 

IF you believe that God is sovereign and He has a provident plan for your life.

 

IF you believe that you are an alien and foreigner in this land we call earth; that your real home is heaven.

 

IF you believe that you are a spiritual being with a temporary earthly shell, not merely a physical being with some small spiritual component.

 

IF you believe that God’s loving discipline is even better for us than the parental discipline of our childhood.

 

We wrestle with each of these tenets when we face difficulties and temptations. God knows that our wrestling makes us tired and can lead us to lose heart. He knows our wrestling can lead to a dangerous sense of despair. And so he reminds us:
“Consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” (Hebrews 12:3-4)

 

If you are wrestling with pain, suffering, sorrow, unpleasant work or home life, there is good news. There comes from wrestling a sense of rest IF we believe what God has in store for us as His children.

 

“Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” ( v 7,11)

 

Maybe you need to wrestle harder. If so, rest in the confidence that Jesus-in-you has already secured the victory. Believe it.

 

 

Strength when you are weak

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Remaining in God’s presence renews us and leaves us refreshed.

 

The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to go on the heights. Habakkuk 3:19

 

Trying to help Marcia with a bit of yard work, I find myself so easily tired. I ‘work’ for five minutes and then sit down and rest for 5-10 minutes. I am constantly aware of my weakness; it is part of the leukemia landscape. How about you? Do you struggle with things that seem beyond your strength to endure? It might be a physical weakness, or maybe an emotional one. Or perhaps there is a weak chink in your spiritual armor and it seems that you are not strong enough to protect yourself from the temptation of doubt, fear, greed, gossip, anger, or any number of self-defeating and Spirit-grieving habits.

 

Here’s the bad news. You aren’t strong enough. .. On your own. Your self-reliant strength will never be enough to endure all that will confront you. You weren’t created to have super powers in all areas of life. The good news is that there is a Sovereign God whose strength IS sufficient. In fact, it is magnified and perfected in your weakness. Although we hate the feeling of being weak, that is precisely where we are able to find God’s strength. Author Sarah Young reminds us the key to accessing this strength is to connect with God; that in this moment by moment connection we are able to receive either the partial strength he gives us for the moment or the full abundant strength of God intends for us.

 

Entering into the presence of God refreshes and rejuvenates us. It allows us to hear the whispers of God as He speaks to us in our state of weakness. And so, we should not be discouraged by our weakness, but encouraged because it leads us into the presence of our Sovereign God whose grace is sufficient and strength is made perfect in our weakness. We are His temple, His sanctuary. Let His strength and glory reside in you.

 

Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and glory are in His sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Psalm 96:6-7

 

 

Fretting is good…for repairing guitars

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If you repair guitars it could be helpful to know something about fretting. It is useful for producing quality tones on the instrument. But the kind of fretting the rest of us tend to do is not helpful for anything except creating ulcers and resentment. It’s called worry.

The Lord Almighty who created all the universe with His spoken command, the One who created everything out of nothing, the One who chose you before the foundations of the earth were laid…this same gracious, loving, holy, powerful, just, all-knowing, wise, sovereign and glorious ‘El Roi’ God sees you where you are. The question is do we trust a sovereign God? Or do we feel more comfortable trusting ourself?

If we trust God, we have nothing to worry about, do we? After all, He knows best and has the best interest of His children at heart. If he chooses suffering and hardship to bring us into that better plan it will be for our good. If we choose our own hardship, He promises to bring us through it if we turn to Him. We earthly parents do the same, however imperfectly. He promises He will never abandon us and that our pain, sorrow, and suffering will one day end and produce glory. If we really believe it, what is there to be anxious about?

But we still worry, don’t we? We don’t need to beat ourself up because a worrying thought comes across our mind. The question is, what do we do with it? Do we dismiss it and turn it quickly over to God or do we dwell on it? Do we determine its fate or does it determine ours? Take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5) I like the mental image of handcuffing that wrong thought and marching it into God’s courtroom. Let Him deal with it.

I admit, I have lots of questions. When will my leukemia be cured? What might cause it to take a turn for the worse? Will we get to carry on with plans to minister in South America? Will my finances hold out? How do I fulfill God’s will when I am so weak? I’m guessing you have lots of questions about your life too. Questions are great. They bring us to God.

But when questions turn and churn into worry, fear grows and interferes with trusting God. We start to think His way is too hard or start thinking OUR way is better than His. (Talk about irrational thinking!)

Jesus said repeatedly, don’t worry. Maybe we should just take Him at His Word. And when we start fretting about something, reaffirm our trust in the One who is sovereign, who has our best interest at heart. “I believe, Lord. Help me in my unbelief.”

Leave fretting to the guitar repairers.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7