Sovereignty 2.5.23
Jerry Beebe

 

So often I hear people say “God is in control” so they fall back into a complacency or passivity, or sometimes even irresponsibility.   It’s like they believe nothing they do will matter.  God has wound the clock of the universe and everything is playing out exactly as He desires.  But friends, that’s poor theology.  It’s not Biblical.  God has give humankind free-will and not everything that happens is His will or in His control.

I recently read an article given to me by Jack Haynes that was excellent on this subject.  Sovereign means “the greatest in power and authority” but it does not mean “in control of everything” that takes place on the earth.  God allows us to possess a free-will.  We are broken by sin and not everything that humankind chooses is God’s will.  But, as the article states, “God doesn’t have to cause it to use it.”   You see, the fact that God uses bad events doesn’t mean He is behind them.

We must continue to make right choices.  We must choose to be Godly and live like Jesus.  If we are in alignment with the Father, led by the Holy Spirit, then our individual steps are ordered of God.  But again, that doesn’t mean that the mass shootings, the corruption, and the evil around us is under “God’s control.”   As Jack Hayford once said, “God in His sovereignty has limited Himself and the quest of Jesus Christ on earth is greatly crippled by wrong notions on the sovereignty of God.”