Trusting God’s Sovereignty
For who can know the LORD’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give him advice? And who has given him so much that he needs to pay it back? For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen. (Romans 11:34–36)
The apostle Paul developed the topic of God’s sovereignty as well as anyone in Romans 9–11, and I want to challenge you to make your own study of those chapters. And if you don’t struggle with those chapters, you’re not really studying them. But when you finally come to that great doxology at the end of chapter 11, perhaps you will, as I did, sigh with a sense of incomprehensible relief, leaving much of the mystery with God. Remember the words?
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! (Romans 11:33 NASB)
This brilliant apostle, under the direction of the Spirit of God, extols the Lord our Father as being full of wisdom and knowledge. So whatever is sovereign is bathed in wisdom and knowledge. When He makes His decisions, which here are called “judgments,” they are “unsearchable,” because we live in a finite realm and He in an infinite one. We live in the temporal now. He lives in the eternal forever. So His decisions, His judgments are “unsearchable.” Furthermore, His ways, while they are right, are in the final analysis “unfathomable.” You cannot get to the bottom of them. You do, however, often come to the place where you say, “I just accept it.” And that requires humility that is very difficult for the educated, intelligent person of today.
All this has led me to a simple definition: Sovereignty means our all-wise, all-knowing God reigns in realms beyond our comprehension to bring about a plan beyond our ability to alter, hinder, or stop.
His plan includes all promotions and demotions. His plan can mean both adversity and prosperity, tragedy and calamity, ecstasy and joy. It envelops illness as much as health, perilous times as much as comfort, safety, prosperity, and ease. His plan is at work when we cannot imagine why, because it is so unpleasant, as much as when the reason is clear and pleasant.
His sovereignty, though it is inscrutable, has dominion over all handicaps, all heartaches, all helpless moments. It is at work through all disappointments, broken dreams, and lingering difficulties. And even when we cannot fully fathom why, He knows. Even when we cannot explain the reasons, He understands. And when we cannot see the end, He is there, nodding, “Yes, that is My plan.”
Taken from The Mystery of God’s Will by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 1999 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com
