Sometimes it is a struggle to accept the sovereignty of God -- His right to do anything He wants with His creation: that is, until we realize that God has a desire to use us as instruments to bring glory to Him, and then allow us share in that glory. I know I have struggled with it for years. There are some things that just don't make sense to my earthly flesh, and I simply have to put my trust in Him, and that can be hard when you don't know where the road leads or how long you might have to endure.
Here are some verses that God has used to help me keep courage in the times of struggle.
- Proverbs 21:1 - The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.
- Proverbs 16:9 - The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
- Proverbs 16:33 - The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.
- Hebrews 12:10,11 - For [our fathers] disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
- Genesis 50:20 - As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
At one point in my life, I had to come to terms with the sovereignty of God over my childhood. If God truly loved me, why didn't he prevent the terrible things that happened that no child should have had to endure? That question took awhile to answer, but sometime in college the story of Joseph came alive for me. As I saw the life of Joseph unfold, I saw that God had a purpose for each of the things I had to endure. It was God's great love that gave me those opportunities; yes, opportunities! They shaped me into the person God wanted to use to build His kingdom and encourage His saints. You see, I learned what Joseph learned, that what man meant for evil, God surely meant for good.
Many will quote Romans 8:28, that, "all things work together for good..." but that verse simply cannot stand alone, any better than a three-legged chair. Romans 8:29 gives us the WHY of verse 28, "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son." God works all things together for good so that we might become like Christ. Knowing this truth helped me understand, accept, and even embrace my broken memories. They were jewels in a setting of gold that God was crafting -- He had been busy making me more like Jesus. I understood that I could endure anything when I know this very thing. It was shortly after realizing these truths that I wrote this personal "creed":
Nothing is worth having unless God gives it to me, and God will never give me anything that isn't worth having.
Simply put, all that I desire or seek after is worthless unless God in His wisdom gives it to me. When I scheme, beg, and manipulate to get what I want, I am saying that God's plan isn't good enough for me. But if anything has value and is necessary for producing a Christ-like nature in me, God will certainly give it to me. And since I know that God is sovereign, He can be trusted when I don't understand what is happening to me. I can know that He has a divine purpose and a specific goal in mind. I can look forward to the fruit that is produced by this present trial.
With this knowledge, I can say with the apostle Paul:
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are [temporary], but the things that are unseen are eternal. (1 Corinthians 1:16-18)