Where are you sitting?

 

God’s sovereignty is important, but do we even understand what that is? God’s sovereignty is His power and authority over creation. Psalm 147 tells us that God is all knowing and all powerful.  God created everything, Genesis 1:1. 

With that understanding also comes the knowledge that God has offered humanity choices. We call these choices “Free-will”. These choices that we have bring us to an ability to either live into the people who God created us to be, or to live in conflict with Gods desire for us. In religious language we call that “sin”.

God offers humanity choices (Deut 30:15-19) but also holds us responsible for our sins (Exodus 20:5).

When my children were younger they asked a seemingly simple yet complex question; “why doesn’t God just make us love Him?”

I responded to their question with a question; “Would you want me to love you because I had to love you or because I chose to love you?” Their response was immediate… “Because you wanted to! You can’t just love someone because someone tells you to…that’s not love!”

My daughter continued “I wouldn’t feel like you really loved me if you HAD to love me.” Profound words coming from a child.

Indeed. We have a God that wants us to love Him not out of obligation but sincerity. The issue with that is that it comes with a risk. The risk being that there will be some people in this world who will choose not to love God.

This understanding sometimes obstructs our view of Gods sovereignty. We go through life with a peripheral concept that since God does not assert his authority over our love for him, he might somehow be less sovereign. We don’t articulate this understanding, but lying beneath our faith sits some off center assumptions that don’t always get addressed.

God is all powerful. Sovereignty does not conclude that power comes from force. Our choices have consequences. God is no less sovereign weather we turn our backs on Him or humbly surrender to Him. Our choice in free will does not deplete His power, omniscience, omnipotence or His omnipresence. The extent in which God applies his sovereignty does not measure the extent to which He is Sovereign.

Jesus is a perfect example of that. Jesus turns our understanding of power upside down. (Read the Beatitudes) Matthew 5:1-12

All of this to say, that our understanding of Gods Sovereignty matters. He is no less powerful because we are less than perfect. He reigns over creation but asks for an invitation into our lives. Have you invited Him in? Who sits on the throne of your life, you or Him? Do you confer with Him before you make decisions? Do you sit with Him before taking actions? When we ask ourselves these questions we might discover that we’ve slowly climbed into the throne without even realizing it.

Where are you sitting?

“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”-Colossians 1:16-17

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.-Hebrews 4:16

Let’s draw close to the throne….but be careful not to take Gods seat.

-Pastor Patti