Week 4: "Practicing the Sovereignty of God"
SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR THE SOUL
“Practicing the Sovereignty of God”
Trust – Trust can be a really big concept to break down into something tangible that we can practice, and one of the hardest places to trust God is in the midst of trouble or worries. Jesus tells us, “Do not worry…” in Matthew 6:25-34, while reminding us of how God has cared and provided for even the birds of the air and lilies of the field. Angelic messengers from the Lord throughout scripture almost always start with this greeting to the terrified receivers of their visits, even as they bring tidings of “great joy” or “good news”.
Did you catch those pairings? The instruction to cease worry is not issued to a people left on their own to try to subdue their own fears. It comes in tandem with clear reminders of who God is and how He has shown Himself to be good, faithful, and powerful to meet our needs Himself, according to His good plans and purposes.
I want to encourage you to try something that author and pastor, Mark Buchanan, calls “Practicing the Sovereignty of God” in his book, “The Rest of God”. This looks something like rehearsing the truth of God’s character and power, until our circumstances fall into right perspective in light of remembering who He is.
Buchanan explores this practice by looking at the reaction of a group of believers in the early church after hearing about how Peter and John were thrown into jail, then threatened and chastised by the Sanhedrin, for preaching the good news about Jesus. The believers respond with prayer and worship, centered on a declaration of God’s sovereignty! Acts 4 tells the believers’ story and includes their prayer:
“23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
“‘Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the Lord
and against his anointed one.[b]’[c]
27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”
Acts 4:23-31 (NIV)
If I was recounting this story, I’d be tempted to start telling you what a rough day it had been for Peter and John, even spending the night in prison! Or I might speculate on how much more trouble they and the believers could get into later if they kept preaching in Jesus’ name. I might even launch into a prayer begging God to keep his people safe from this kind of persecution. And in so doing, I would unintentionally fill my focus with an ever-increasing vision of the problem, until I could barely see God, still there somewhere in the background.
Instead, we find the believers in Acts 4 declaring God’s might and power throughout history: “’Sovereign Lord,’ they said, ‘you made the heavens and the earth and the seas and everything in them…” Starting with creation, they go on to quote the psalms and even name God’s power and will at work in Jesus’ trial and crucifixion. Their eyes are firmly fixed on how great, how capable, how sovereign God is over all. And then, they make reference to the day’s incident of threats and imprisonment, and they ask for boldness—not safety—from the Lord to equip them to respond. And that’s exactly what God gives them – in place of any fear or timidity, He gives them His boldness to continue to speak His word through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit!
Buchanan call this an “Oh, by the way” kind of prayer, where after proclaiming God’s power and authority, the requests we bring before him almost seem like an afterthought. Then he concludes his chapter with this challenge:
“After you have been with Jesus long enough, and feel your courage brimming, and he looks bigger, see if there’s still an Oh, by the way…”
There are so many things going on that we could fix our eyes on worrying about these days. So much uncertainty and unanswered questions. But what if we fixed our eyes on Jesus instead, and repeated the stories (and reminded ourselves) of His sovereignty and sufficiency? What if we placed our worries into His capable hands and entrusted them to Him, instead of trying to hold them all on our own?
Today, let's "practice the Sovereignty of God" by fixing our eyes on Him first, letting that focus put perspective on our worries as we actively trust in our great and sovereign God!
“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, that you may not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 12:2-3