Sovereign
It is raining. Not heavy, but definitely steady. The evidence of God’s care and cultivation of His land. It will nourish the flora and replenish the waterways, and the air will smell cleaner when the skies clear. I am always strangely comforted by a good rain. Maybe it is a simple thing, but I like knowing that God is bigger and more powerful than I. He restrains His awesome and mighty hand and condescends to deal gently with me.
When everything around is chaotic and tempestuous, and the harried and anxious are self-absorbed, and violence and hatred are bent on destruction, I go still and quiet in His presence and remember that He is God. He sets kings in place and removes them at will. He commands the winds and the clouds. He orders the galaxies. At His word the world was born. It does me good to see His reality. He does not answer to men, but astoundingly He is willing to engage in conversation with men.
Some of my favorite passages in the Bible describe these conversations: when God and Abraham talk about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, when Moses keeps reminding God that the Israelites are His people, when David wants to build God a temple. Seen from a certain perspective, we can see God’s eternal patience as He molds for Himself a unique and precious people.
It is one thing to ponder these events in the Old Testament, when the invisible God opens a dialog with human beings. But consider the God-man Jesus and His interactions with those who had not heard a spoken word from God in 400 years. They were literally walking and talking and eating with God Almighty. He had come to them in human form to keep the conversation going. And that is a truly astounding condescension. How could we not respond to this persistent wooing?
Because of what Jesus did and how He died and rose again, we have access to God Himself. We come into His presence on the authority of Jesus’ name. We were sinners, separated from Him, and now we are free to run the race, face adversity and trials of all kinds, and get to know Him deeper and deeper along the way. Oh, and better still, we get to live forever with Him where He is.
The key to enjoying this outstanding adventure is the conversation. There are hundreds of books and podcasts about prayer. We can spend a lifetime studying it. We’re not going to benefit, however, if we don’t do it. Humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God and get honest about what we don’t know, about ourselves and about Him. He’s already proven that He wants us to engage. He’s been pursuing people for centuries. When we acknowledge that He is God and we are not, we can begin to get His perspective. He’s not alarmed. He’s most certainly in control. And He’s got good works prepared for us. Things only He can do, in us and through us. We get to participate when we place ourselves in His hands.
Dear one, do you need God’s perspective on things? Do you need to let go of what you know so that you can know more? Let us pray. “Heavenly Father, You are holy and mighty, and You have made all things. You set the stars in place and gave boundaries to oceans. You molded the mountains and the valleys and populated the earth with every wild thing. You breathed life into us. We know that You are able to change our hearts, and we ask You to help us. We want to submit our will to Yours. We acknowledge that Your ways are above our ways and Your thoughts are above our thoughts. We relinquish our opinions and our arguments and ask You to flood our hearts with Your love and Your word. Have Your way and let Your kingdom come, in our hearts, in our homes, and in our communities. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
Until next week, beloved, quiet yourself and know that He is God.