90% SOVEREIGN

                                                     90% SOVEREIGN

Can God be 90% sovereign? Most of us would roll our eyes and say that is absurd. Yet we live as if it is true. If he is indeed sovereign, then everything that we face in life is intentional. Our tendency is to label events in out lives as “good” or “bad”, depending on how that event makes us feel. We need to be careful that we don’t  distort what scripture teaches us about God’s character. He is not sovereign because of how we feel, but because he is, regardless of how we feel.

I hear people limit his  sovereignty even as they quote scripture.
Romans 8:28 says, “God causes everything to work together for the good for those who love god,” but we all too often view this as God coming in after hardship or disaster or pain, and then cleaning up the mess. Or being in the business of repairing that which has befallen us. If that were true, it would require us to say that he had lost his grip for a moment. As if during the time we are hurting, he wasn’t around, or was looking the other way, busy with something else. That he was only 90%  sovereign.
               
But sovereignty is one of those all or nothing parts of what we believe about God. He is either in control of it all, (and indeed molding our circumstances for our intimate and personal good), or we are left to decide in what areas we can’t trust him. John Piper likens it to the difference between a surgeon who plans the incision for our good, and the emergency room doctor who will sew us up after a freak accident. One is in control of the situation, and the other is trying to fix the unexpected. With God, it can only be one or the other.

Our biggest challenge here is to really believe this. It is often very difficult, especially when we feel like life has risen up and slapped us in the face. Life sometimes hurts. It crushes us, pounds us down, and bewilders us. Which is exactly why it is so vital that we think correctly in this area. The bottom line is that if God is indeed 100% sovereign, then we can trust him 100% of the time. Not partially, not hesitantly, not sometimes. And as I look through scripture, the question I see all through history is just that. “Will you trust me?” I have yet to see a place where this isn’t God’s question to his people. And the extent to which I really believe in his sovereignty is the extent to which I will trust him. Automatically? Easily? Without pain and struggle? Not me, though I wish that were true. But it is good to be reminded of what is true, really true, and not just react out of what I feel. 

I hope this is as comforting to you as it is to me. God is sovereign, and God is good. Not just when I see it, not just 90% of the time, but always. My prayer is for the strength and trust to believe it in the practicality of my daily living.