Monday, May 11, 2020
704 - God's in Control ... of This?
Spirituality Column #704
May 12, 2020
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
God’s in Control … of This?
By Bob Walters
Countless doctrinal sticking points notwithstanding, if
Christians, Jews, and Muslims have one inarguable thing in common it is their
assuredness that “God is in control.”
Yes … God – the “capital G” God, yhwh, Allah, the one with “99 Beautiful Names,” the Cosmic Sovereign
– is in control. He created all things, is
the giver of life, knows all things, and is the lone and final arbiter of
judgment, mercy, and justice. How
humanity’s relationship with God works – personally and corporately – that’s
where you’ll find all the doctrinal sticking points.
But let’s not spend time today on the “sticking
points.” While I’m fully prepared,
willing, confident, and always excited to share the reasons for the hope and
trust I have in Jesus Christ, the topic at hand is God’s sovereign control.
I’ll talk about it as a Christian since that is what I know best. A Jew or a Muslim would explain it
differently in terms of what they know best.
As for this sovereign God who is in control; we sure pray to
Him a lot. “Fix this, fix that,” we
demand. “How can a good God allow …
THIS!?” From (currently) viruses and
social distancing, to politics and factions, to economic freefall and globalist
intrigues, why has this supposedly all-powerful God let this chaos happen and
why do I have to worry about it?
Sigh. Bad, chaotic
things happen because the world is a fallen place. When we refuse that truth or refuse God’s
righteousness – because God is the real Capital T Truth – this life
likely will seem like a purposeless, out-of-control slog. Try as we might to construct for ourselves an
alternate ultimate purpose or “goodness” emanating out of our own God-refusing
humanity, I can only direct us all back to Square One where “God is in control.”
However – and this is my first of two brief but main points –
despite God “being in control,” we also have to understand that He gives us
personal freedom; we have to control that. Why? God
is love – Jesus said so – and love can’t be coerced. God created us in His own image so that we
could glorify Him – and ourselves – by freely loving Him and His creation.
Speaking only for my Christian self, I believe my job, opportunity,
and purpose in this life – in this fallen world – is to use my freedom to
discover and testify to God’s glory. Freedom
– as we should know by now – is not really a government thing; it’s a sovereign
God thing.
Second, God controls things we cannot see or imagine. Remember how the Jews reacted when Jesus –
God riding on a donkey – entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to initiate His plan
to save the whole world through His love for the Jews? Yeah, the Jews weren’t impressed and had
Jesus killed. God’s glory isn’t always
revealed – or accepted – smoothly.
Our mission is to live God’s love and
obey Him when He shows up, not to tell Him what we think His job should be. In this season of dire disease and civil
unease, I’ve seen two remarkable examples of God’s sovereign “control” recently
that everything to do with devout prayer on the one hand and God’s timing on
the other:
1. A long-time friend’s 47-year-old son (father of three) had
a severe, surprise, not-gonna’-make-it heart attack. Facebook lit up in prayer. Just three weeks on he’s back at home doing
fine.
2. My wife Pam’s daughter Lauren, a mother of three, in a
minor surgical follow-up last week, had “the biggest kidney stone” her
urologist had ever seen – discovered just before the shutdown, preventing major
kidney surgery in mid-March – simply fall out of its stented lodging spot into
an easily getable location, also something her urologist had never seen. Lauren was back at work the next day; fixed. God’s timing? Had the major surgery and long convalescence
happened, Lauren would now be furloughed from her job. Nobody thought to pray about that.
So yes, God is in control.
Let’s use the freedom He provides to discover His plan, our trust in Him,
our love for each other, and to accept His surprises, righteousness, and grace.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com)
has no Plan B; Plan A is faith in Jesus.
That’ll work.
PS –You sharp Christian doctrinal types will notice that
I consider “freedom” to be something of a divine absolute, not a sub-function
of Calvinist predestination. You have
observed my beliefs correctly. We all
know Romans 8:29-30 and Ephesians 1:5,11; we also all know John 3:16. No need to fight; God is in control. I believe we all have a shot; we just have to
believe in Jesus Christ (John 14:6, Acts 4:12). I
pray for all.
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