Tag: God is in control

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Acts Devotionals

Our hope

Acts

I’ll be honest. When I look at the social landscape, it can get pretty depressing. Morals are collapsing. The concept of family is collapsing. And my guess is that it will only get harder and harder to be a Christian in the future.

Frankly, that shouldn’t surprise us. Jesus told us that such a time would be coming.

But as I look at the hope the apostles had, it restores my hope.

They were facing heavy opposition from the Jewish religious leaders. Even when these leaders were rendered without argument, they still opposed the apostles.

Why did the apostles have hope? They remembered who was truly in control.

They remembered that God is the Sovereign Lord who created heaven and earth. Who spoke the universe into existence with a word.

And they remembered that though people might rage against God and set themselves against him, that all their raging was ultimately futile.

God reigns. And his purpose will stand.

That was made especially clear in the cross. Though people raged against God, in the end, they did whatever God’s hand and God’s will had predestined to take place. (28)

In short, God never, ever lost control. And he never will.

That’s our hope.

So as the apostles, let us pray for boldness to speak his word.

And let us pray that his Spirit would fill his people so that we might have the power to touch this dying world.

Categories
Job

What really matters

Job

God…enter stage right.

I kind of wonder if the reason that Elihu started talking about storms was that he actually saw a storm approaching, the very storm, in fact, from which God spoke.

Some people may question why I tend to say that Elihu, in the main, was right.  The answer is basically found in chapter 40, where God asks Job,

Would you discredit my justice?  Would you condemn me to justify yourself? (Job 40:8)

Which was the whole reason why Elihu was so upset with Job in the first place (32:2), and the theme of his whole speech.  Also, much of what Elihu said in the latter part of his speech, God repeats here.

Namely, “Who are you to question me?”  God asks Job,

Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?  Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.  (Job 38:2-3)

And again,

Who has put wisdom in the mind? Or who has given understanding to the heart?  (38:36)

And yet again,

Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?  Let him who accuses God answer him!  (40:2)

In other words, “Job, you’re spewing out all these words, but you have no idea what you’re talking about. What’s more, think for a minute Job.  Who gave you the ability to even reason?  I am.  Yet you think you can argue with me?”

And throughout these chapters, God reminds Job just how small and limited he really is.

Job wasn’t there when God created the world.  He had no knowledge concerning how God put things together or of the laws of nature that God set in place (38:4-11).

His experiences were similarly limited.  He had not entered the depths of the sea nor explored the breadth of the earth, nor had he ever visited outer space where the sun resides.  He had never even gone as high as the clouds  (38:16-24).

What’s more, he had no power to control nature, to grow grass, make it thunder or rain, to bring out the stars, or provide food for the animals  (38:25-41).

He never created any of the animals.  He never gave the ostrich its speed, the ox and horse their strength, or the eagle its ability to fly.  He didn’t even have the ability to tame all the animals in the world (chapter 39).

And if he couldn’t even contend with the behemoth (it’s not clear what God is referring to here, perhaps the hippo or the elephant) or the leviathan (perhaps the alligator or an extinct type of sea reptile), how could he hope to contend with their Creator (chapters 40-41)?

Faced with his own limitations and inadequacies, Job humbled himself before God and said,

I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You…

I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.  (42:2-3)

What can we get from all this?

I’ve mentioned this before and it’s worth repeating.  Job never did get the answers to why God had allowed him to suffer.  He was now sure that God wasn’t punishing him for anything.  But other than that, he knew nothing.

God never sat him down and said, “Now what really happened is that I was having a conversation with Satan, and…”

And yet, in the end, the whys didn’t matter to Job anymore.  What did matter to him?

My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.  (42:5)

In other words, “God, the whys are not so important to me anymore.  What’s important is that I now know that you are here, and that you do care.

“You are so much greater than I am.  You know so much more than I ever could.  And you had no obligation to come meet with me.  But you cared enough to do so, anyway.

“And so now, I’ll just humble myself before you, and lay all my questions to rest.”

We may never understand the whys to all our questions.  God may never tell us.  But there are three important things that we should never forget in the midst of our trials and sufferings.

  • God is in control, and he knows what he’s doing, even when we don’t.
  • God is here, even when we can’t sense his presence.
  • God does care.

Let us never doubt these three things.  That’s the message of Job in a nutshell.

May we, like Job, hold on to these truths through the trials and sufferings we face in this life.

Categories
Isaiah

The God who is in control

Isaiah

Sometimes as we look at the news, it seems like the world is going crazy.  We see crime, war, and natural disasters, and we wonder if God is really in control.

But God answers here that ultimately he is the one in control. 

In this passage, he seems to be predicting the coming of Cyrus who would conquer many nations, but in making these predictions, God says, “I am the one who is behind it all.” 

He asks the people,

Who has done this and carried it through, calling forth the generations from the beginning? 

I, the Lord – with the first of them and with the last – I am he. (Isaiah 41:4)

In other words, “I am the everlasting one.  And I hold all of history in my hands.  I was there at the very beginning of time, and I will be there at its end.”

How do we respond to this?  We have two choices.  One is to respond as the nations do. 

Isaiah says of them,

The islands have seen it and fear; the ends of the earth tremble. 

They approach and come forward; each helps the other and says to his brother, “Be strong!” 

The craftsman encourages the goldsmith, and he who smooths with the hammer spurs on him who strikes the anvil.  He says of the welding, “It is good.” 

He nails down the idol so it will not topple.  (5-7)

So many people, when faced with the idea that God is in control, respond with fear as these nations did.  And so they try to encourage each other, saying, “Let’s make our own gods that we can control, rather than follow the God that we can’t.”

In those days, that meant making idols out of gold or wood or whatever material they chose to use. 

Today, many people try to control their own lives by making money their god.  They think that if they just make enough money, they can rely on themselves rather than on the living God.

But as God exposed the idols for the worthless things they were (21-24), so God will expose the things that we try to rely on. 

Just as the idols were helpless to predict the future, so is money worthless when it comes to predicting our future security. 

Stock markets crash.  Bad investments are made.  And as quickly as money can be made, it can quickly be lost.  And so God says of these false gods,

You are less than nothing and your works are utterly worthless; he who chooses you is detestable.  (24)

What is our other choice, then?  Our other choice is to put our trust in God.  And when we do, God says to us,

Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.  (10)

And again,

I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. 

Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O little Israel, for I myself will help you…

See, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth.  You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.  You will winnow them, the wind will pick them up, and a gale will blow them away. 

But you will rejoice in the Lord and glory in the Holy One of Israel. (13-16)

God promises that when we trust him, he will not forsake us, but rather that he will turn our “deserts” into “pools of water,” and our “parched ground” into “springs.” 

He promises further that he will take “a barren desert and wasteland and fill it with trees.”  (17-19)

In other words, though our lives seem dry and devoid of life, he will come and make it into something beautiful. 

Why does God do this?

So that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.  (20)

God is already in control, so why not surrender control of your life to him? 

The tighter we hold on to control in our lives, the more things spin out of control.  But when we surrender control to him, that’s when everything starts to come together and we find his blessing in our lives.

Who has control of your life today?