This morning I felt a whisper in my spirit, that God is teaching the church about His sovereignty. Maybe He’s teaching the whole world. And the challenge is, the moment I say that, the offense begins. Are we childlike enough to sit and trust and love, in the midst of things we don’t understand? Or, will we turn to judgment as a false comforter? Not only judgment of people – my concern is that some might presume to judge God.
The one thing we must never lose is our faith. Not our faith in our salvation, but our faith in God. He never abandons His little ones.
I don’t have the gumption to speculate on what sovereignty looks like in this context: the world is shut down, disrupted, poverty is growling at the doors of many, conspiracy theories are rampant, wars and rumours of wars. We’re being confronted with mystery – the oldest mystery, about exactly how and why God allows bad things to happen. My concern is that we in the privileged West might not be able to face His sovereignty without offense. Beautiful ones, we need peace.
Of the church I know, I hear two things. I hear people say the enemy brings bad things which we can prevent through prayer, but if the bad thing happens God will then bring good from it. The problem with this is, Peter tried to prevent the bad thing from happening to Jesus and Jesus was like, “NO!” And Paul himself refused to try and prevent his own death in chains. Yet, both asked for prayer – for strength and for divine help.
The other camp is way far the other way. They think we should just suffer through anything and not pray against it, and attribute all things to God – which also isn’t the right way to see it, because we are commanded to raise the dead, heal the sick, and bring wholeness and love to the brokenhearted. We’re meant to be a light, and light changes everything. Except. . .when the thing it changes is only on the inside, in hearts where the effects are hard to see. Then it’s a certain spark in the eye in the midst of a tear-stained face. Is this the greatest miracle?
The truth is that we don’t know “why.” All we can do is trust God and follow the Spirit, and not try to make ourselves too wise or clever by trying to say what’s God’s will and what isn’t. I fear God too much to say anyone could have prevented awful things in my own life – and I fear God too much to say they couldn’t have! I know that if someone had the power to prevent it, and didn’t have the heart or courage to do so, they angered God, and will need to repent for it. But He knew the strength and depth of faith I’d acquire, and whether that’s why it happened or not, it did happen, and He allowed it. And now that is the reason. Our eyes are for today and for the future, not for the past.
But if I say that to some of my church community, they are very offended. They say a God who allows things is an abuser, and therefore it must only be the church and enemy who are to blame. There is truth that we can and should be doing much more, and that we’re in a spiritual battle. But, to attach the hypothetical criticism to God (“If He allowed it, He is an abuser”) is one of the worst and most foolish and presumptuous narratives that has come out of the church since I became acquainted with it. They then console themselves in their offense by saying God never allowed it – but we can’t always know that. How can we, little specks of dust in the universe, know everything or anything about why things are as they are?
So we are learning about His sovereignty, is what I know. And whether that looks like the sovereign overturning of possible disaster, or allowing disaster, remains to be seen. Still – each one of us must do the good, and pray for good, as we are able. Without allowing the pain or the mystery to dampen our faith.
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