Trusting in the sovereign Lord

Not that I do it very well, but I do think I’ve understood for a number of years that it is good and right to trust in the Lord’s love. In some fairly hard circumstances, I’ve found solace and security in the Romans 8:38-39 promise:

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In the Lord’s love is a very good place to rest secure. At times, I’ve found great peace in knowing that truth and experiencing it. Knowing and feeling God’s love, no matter what.

It’s taken me a lot of years in the faith to grow in another truth, though. When I say grow, I definitely don’t mean that I’m grown and mature in it. I’m just getting going on this part of life with the Lord. Many of you may have caught on to this much sooner. I can be pretty stiff-necked, and I think it’s made me a slow learner in this area. What is that lesson that I’m just starting to learn over the last few years?

I can and should trust in His Sovereign Hand as well. I trust His love from which I will never be separated, and that speaks peace and security and affirmation and value into my heart and soul. But I can be assured of His love and still spend a great deal of my time and energy struggling hard against so many circumstances of my life. I can be anxious and far from being at peace.

It doesn’t really make sense that I would think God would love me yet fail to care for me. And how could He care for me without being intimately involved in the circumstances of my life?

His Sovereignty is so much more than my life circumstances, yet it is nothing less than my life circumstances either. This is a Romans 8:28 confidence, but it’s a different sort than I usually rest in. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Many times when I stand on this promise, I’m almost thinking of God coming along behind to pick up the pieces broken in my life, making a good thing out of them.

In all things, God is previous. He is working His will and His purposes through the fabric of history and the fabric of my life. By the testimony of His Word, this doesn’t make me a passive bystander. I’m praying, I’m working, I’m choosing. I’m living each day walking with the Lord and responding to Him.

I don’t think we’re programmed robots, and I do think we can and do make wrong choices. Because something is, doesn’t mean that it is good. Divine sovereignty and human responsibility have mystery.

But He is leading, instructing, correcting, protecting. He is in charge, and in absolute control of the working of His will.

I can rest there; I should rest there. He is on the throne, and in Him all things live and move and have their being. (Acts 17:28) By faith and by His grace, I will rest both in His love and in His sovereignty.