Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is Yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom. You are exalted as Head over all. Wealth and honor come from You. You are the Ruler of all things. In Your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. (1 Chronicles 29:11-12)
This post builds on Christ’s Wisdom in Proverbs (Part 1) and God is Sovereign
Jesus is Lord
Scripture teaches that God (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is never in a hurry, but He is always on time. Human beings drive on through history, but the Lord holds the reins. God is so powerful that He directs bad things to a good ending in Christ. Even when the devil tries to frustrate the Lord’s goodness, God overrules and advances His kingdom anyway. The Lord is the first Causer in human history and the final Causer. And He uses people and events to accomplish His agenda. Nothing happens by accident, chance, or outside of God’s control. He works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will.1
After Christ’s resurrection, He told His disciples: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me….And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”2 Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords (He is transcendent). He is also our Elder Brother and Everlasting Father who sticks close to us (He is immanent). The scope of Jesus’ control, authority, and presence is the entire universe. And one day, every knee will bow at Jesus’ name and every tongue acknowledge that Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.3
God’s sovereignty is a giant theme in Scripture, maybe the biggest theme, stated or implied in every chapter of the Bible. Here are some (but not all) thoughts on this important topic in Proverbs and other Scriptures:
God and Our Plans
Proverbs says: To humans belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the proper answer of the tongue….In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps…..Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails….A person’s steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand their own way?4
Other Scriptures say: LORD, I know that people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps….The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in Him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with His hand…..We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.5
We Are to Set Goals
God requires us to plan. That’s our responsibility as His image bearers. We are in charge of managing His creation. But Scripture condemns plans that forget and ignore God. Only the Lord determines outcomes and whether our plans ever come to pass. Scripture calls us to keep on remembering that. Thank God, He rescues us daily when we plan poorly or live wrongly and when we are opposed by Satan or other people.
In the first century AD, Rabbi Saul of Tarsus traveled to Damascus, Syria, planning to persecute the Christian believers there. But the Lord arrested and converted Saul and made him a Christ-follower and a super-zealous Christian missionary.6 This surprised Saul and other people, but it was just another step in the unfolding of Jesus’ eternal plans. Later on, a servant named Onesimus decided to rob his boss, Philemon, and planned to run away forever. But, using Paul, God converted Onesimus and brought him back to his old job with a new heart, serving Christ faithfully by serving his employer.7 That’s what all of us are to do.
The Lord calls us to live a life of loving others, faithfulness, and righteousness as He defines those virtues. That’s our job and He will judge our motives and deeds to reward or punish us as He sees appropriate. We are 100% responsible to choose God-honoring paths. That’s our full-time job. But it is the Lord’s job to overrule or establish our paths in life and their results. Let’s stay in our own lane.
●Psalm 17:5 My steps have held to your paths. My feet have not stumbled.
●Psalm 119:59 I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes.
●Proverbs 16:2-4 All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord. Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans. The Lord works out everything to its proper end—even the wicked for a day of disaster.
God’s Providence
Pastor Dale Ralph Davis says: When I use the word “providence”…I mean that wonderful, strange, mysterious, unguessable way the Lord has of ruling His world and sustaining His people. He does it frequently over, under, around, through, or in spite of the most common stuff of our lives or even the bias of our wills….The Lord’s ways will frequently baffle us but His revealed will in Scripture is sufficiently clear to lead us in the meantime. God’s secret ways may not be clear, but our way to live is, at least enough of it to know what obedience the Lord requires. We may wait for God’s providence to ripen, but we already have God’s law, and that is all we need for the moment.8
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we praise You for Your mighty hand that governs our lives. You are in control and You work every detail for our good and for Your glory. Even when the future is unknown, and we are tempted to be anxious, help us to trust You and rest in Your sovereignty. You are worthy to be praised for who You are. We thank Your that You guide, protect, and holds our planet and our lives together. Strengthen our faith in You. Make us lights to others who also need to trust your sovereignty. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Notes (various Bible translations used): 1 Eph 1:11. 2 Matt 28:18-20. 3 Phil 2:10-11. 4 Prov 16:1,9; 19:21; 20:24. 5 Jer 10:23; Psalm 37:23; 2 Cor 4:7-11. 6 Acts 9:1-19. 7 Book of Philemon. 8 Adapted from Dale Ralph Davis, 1 Samuel, p. 94, 272.