What does it mean that God is sovereign? What response does he ask of us in light of His sovereign control over things? Were the questions I read in an article from Jean Fleming. I know I have said He is sovereign and that I trust Him and yet my stomach still churns and my heart races with thoughts of the what if's at times. There are moments when I'm in sitting in the boat looking out over the raging waters looking for Him to calm my storm or get on the ship with me and tell me everything will be OK. I sometimes grow impatient and that is when the devil attacks. He sees me in my weakness and brings little passing thoughts and lies. And if I'm not careful to catch them, and throw them out, they will stay in my mind and fester and that is all I need to start my doubt. The men in the boat that were caught in the storm feared for their lives for 10 long hours before they saw Jesus on the water. Jesus spoke to them "Do not be afraid." They probably thought they were seeing things, a ghost. The sea was often referred to as an Abyss, evil, something to be feared and now hear they were in the middle of one of their greatest fears. They had to be exhausted at this point. They had to be empty to the point of wanting to give up and let the sea take them. I have been to that point a couple of times in my life. And each time He has came when I didn't think I could make it another minute. When I thought He had forgotten all about me.
The kids and I usually have a devotional time early in the morning. That never happened yesterday. Allen was home early which is unusual and I called the kids to the front room to do our devotions rather than heading upstairs to do them before reading stories. I thought it would be nice since daddy was home to do them together. We have a small kids devotional book that we are going through and it has sections of the Bible to read out loud 1st. Last night the passage of scripture we read was Hebrews 11. God's Hall of fame for those who had faith, the mighty men of the Bible. It says that without faith it is impossible to please God. I don't know that there could have been a better scripture choice for us as a family to share together after an exhausting day in the storm. To sum it up according to the kids language...Walk by faith, not by sight. The water may be raging under your feet but concentrate on the SON peeking through the clouds.
Knowing that God is sovereign gives me peace knowing that even when my plans, my desires, my dreams are redirected down a different road that He is ultimately in control and His plans will prevail. My mistakes from my past, places I've lived, who I am were all part of his plan. Each of the storms were part of His plan to bring me closer to His Will for my life. God's sovereignty can be trusted because of who He is and how He loves us. We can trust God's sovereign control because He does bring sufficient grace. Often times, it is not the fear of the storm that bothers me the most. It is my fear of if I will have what it takes to make it through the storm. Am I strong enough? Will I cave? Will I be able to glorify God through this? How long will we have to fight this storm? Yet each storm has been calmed, sometimes only seconds before, but they have been calmed before the grace He provides runs out. Because God is sovereign we can trust that He isn't just moving our lives one step at a time, but that He has a wonderful plan in mind and each step along the way is specifically chosen so that we can be who He needs us to be when we make it there. It's like when we are watching a parade. Usually it is so crowded we can only see the float that just passed, the band in front of us and sometimes those men in funny little hats racing around in their little go carts coming up next. But God has the aerial view of the entire parade all at one time.
If you are not facing a life and death situation, a serious illness, financial devastation, a broken marriage, a severed relationship, we know that they could be just a breath away. We can use our everyday trials and burdens as training ground to build faith and strengthen our relationship with Him so that when those trials do show up at our door we will be ready because we have that faith in Him. We may not know at the end of the storm, we may not ever know the reason we were asked to go through circumstances or trials, But because of God's sovereignty we can rest in the knowledge that we are headed towards His ultimate plan and that He had his reasons for letting us tarry there.
The kids and I usually have a devotional time early in the morning. That never happened yesterday. Allen was home early which is unusual and I called the kids to the front room to do our devotions rather than heading upstairs to do them before reading stories. I thought it would be nice since daddy was home to do them together. We have a small kids devotional book that we are going through and it has sections of the Bible to read out loud 1st. Last night the passage of scripture we read was Hebrews 11. God's Hall of fame for those who had faith, the mighty men of the Bible. It says that without faith it is impossible to please God. I don't know that there could have been a better scripture choice for us as a family to share together after an exhausting day in the storm. To sum it up according to the kids language...Walk by faith, not by sight. The water may be raging under your feet but concentrate on the SON peeking through the clouds.
Knowing that God is sovereign gives me peace knowing that even when my plans, my desires, my dreams are redirected down a different road that He is ultimately in control and His plans will prevail. My mistakes from my past, places I've lived, who I am were all part of his plan. Each of the storms were part of His plan to bring me closer to His Will for my life. God's sovereignty can be trusted because of who He is and how He loves us. We can trust God's sovereign control because He does bring sufficient grace. Often times, it is not the fear of the storm that bothers me the most. It is my fear of if I will have what it takes to make it through the storm. Am I strong enough? Will I cave? Will I be able to glorify God through this? How long will we have to fight this storm? Yet each storm has been calmed, sometimes only seconds before, but they have been calmed before the grace He provides runs out. Because God is sovereign we can trust that He isn't just moving our lives one step at a time, but that He has a wonderful plan in mind and each step along the way is specifically chosen so that we can be who He needs us to be when we make it there. It's like when we are watching a parade. Usually it is so crowded we can only see the float that just passed, the band in front of us and sometimes those men in funny little hats racing around in their little go carts coming up next. But God has the aerial view of the entire parade all at one time.
If you are not facing a life and death situation, a serious illness, financial devastation, a broken marriage, a severed relationship, we know that they could be just a breath away. We can use our everyday trials and burdens as training ground to build faith and strengthen our relationship with Him so that when those trials do show up at our door we will be ready because we have that faith in Him. We may not know at the end of the storm, we may not ever know the reason we were asked to go through circumstances or trials, But because of God's sovereignty we can rest in the knowledge that we are headed towards His ultimate plan and that He had his reasons for letting us tarry there.
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