I’d like to end this section on God’s sovereignty with a slightly more personal tone. We’ve talked about how God reveals his sovereignty as Creator/Author, how we reveal his sovereignty by making him Lord, how scripture reveals he is sovereign over salvation, sin, satan, and suffering. Those are all necessary but hefty lines of thought. This week I want to talk about his careful sovereignty in the details of our lives.
The scripture that keeps coming to mind is Psalm 35:27, “Great is the LORD, who delights in the welfare of his servant!” The Hebrew word for “welfare” in this verse is shalom. That’s right, the same shalom that means “peace.” Our welfare is connected to peace. He delights in our peace. Yes, he is sovereign over Satan, and he created the expanding universe, but he is also sovereign over the freckles on my face. Maybe freckles seem too elementary, but I believe that is exactly the point. He is Lord over the big, giganticness of life, and he is also Lord of the small, tininess of life. Nichole Nordeman sings these lyrics,
And I know you could leave writing
On the wall that’s just for me
Or send wisdom while I’m sleeping
Like in Solomon’s sweet dreams
But I don’t need the strength of Sampson
Or a chariot in the end
Just wanna know that you still know how many
Hairs are on my head
Oh great God, Be small enough to hear me now
I’d like to share a personal example with you of how God was small enough to delight in my peace. When my son, Winter, was four years old, he spent a few days a week in a preschool program. In his classroom they had behavior charts. Staying at green was good and moving to red was bad. Winter was having trouble staying quiet while the teacher was talking. A trait he came by honestly, at least according to my mother. In an effort to help him make better decisions, I gave him a little incentive. Veggie Tales had just released Jonah the movie. If he could stay off red all week, we would go straight to the theater when I picked him up on Friday. We were both excited, I’m a child at heart. Winter did good all week, until Thursday. He had to move his card to red that day. It was sad for both us. There were tears and pleads, and maybe a trantrum. It may not seem like a big deal to go the movies, but for some reason it was a treat we had both been looking forward to. I remember asking the Lord, What should I do? How strict should I be here—he did good for the majority of the week? And, I heard the Lord say, just as a phrase that came to mind, “Second chance.” So, the next morning on the ride to preschool, Winter brought up going to the movie, again. I told him the good news. “You get a second chance! Stay on green and we’re going.” He did stay on green that day, and we did go to see Jonah!
Now if you’re familiar with the movie, you will remember there is a big, pinnacle, show stopper scene in the belly of the whale with a big choir singing these words,
Praise the Lord, He’s the God of second chances
You’ll be floored how His love your life enhances
You can be restored from your darkest circumstances
Our God is a God of second chances!
I was floored. I looked at Winter, he looked at me, “Hey, second chances!” I have no idea if Winter remembers that week, that movie, that moment, but I do know it planted a seed of mercy somewhere in him. I know that small detail brought peace to our family that week. It also gave me the confidence to keep asking God for help as I parented a creative, adventurous, intellectual, humorous son. A son who had to grieve the loss of his father at the age of sixteen. I’m telling you, there were times I would not have known what to do if I didn’t know God was sovereign over the smallest of things.
As we call on God and choose to rest in him through all the challenges and changes in life, we give him the opportunity to reveal his sovereignty to us. We in turn affirm his sovereignty with our trust and rest in him. Our faith in God screams out, “I believe you are sovereign over ____________! I Believe you are big enough to split the sea wide open! I believe you are small enough to give me a two-word phrase that changes my week.”
I want to end with this thought: it is in God’s sovereignty that he knows us.* It can be intimidating or fearsome to consider that God knows everything about us. But, from a different perspective, it can also be incredibly comforting. All my details are included the ‘everything’ that God knows. He knows every thought, every emotion, every “hidden” thing about me. When there is a need (legitimate or pressured) to put on a happy face, or look better than I am for others, he is the one I can be real with. I never have to hide from him.
Great is the Lord! He delights in my welfare!
This week as you read the daily scriptures, ask God to reveal his small enough, delighted sovereignty to you.
Day Two
1 Kings 19:1-13
Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.
The Lord Speaks to Elijah
There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Day Three
John 8:3-11
As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.
“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”
They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.
When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”
“No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
Day Four
Psalm 46:10 – 11
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Isaiah 30:15
…thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
Day Five
1 Kings 17:8-16
Then the word of the Lord came to him, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.” And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’” And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.
Day Six
Psalm 139:1-7
O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Day Seven
Philippians 4:4-7
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
What passage comes to your mind where the Lord delights in the welfare of his servants?
©Adrienne Scott 2018
*Acknowledgements – Pastor Sharon Miner
Brave Sparrow 