Recently, I have been thinking a lot about the question of sovereignty.Not why God allows suffering, but if it really is him allowing it, or has more to do with this broken world that we live in. Maybe asking questions like that sounds heretical, but it’s the question that my heart has been asking whether I voice it out loud or not.
I’m not a theologian, so I can’t give all the theological reasons why God is sovereign despite the impact of (original) sin, or explain exactly what that impact is. I am sure there are some of you out there who can, and if you would like to do so, we would be interested to hear…
But this has been more of a journey for what my heart understands. Some of that has come through books, but most, through gentle whispers of a still small voice.
The voice has said ” I love you, and I am in control, no matter what you feel, think, are told.” The voice has spoken to my heart and brought comfort so deep that it cannot be articulated with words. It has given me peace despite circumstances and in-spite of the confusion of my mind. I know he is sovereign, even if I can’t understand it all. Even while I grapple once again with the problem of suffering and pain. The problem, that for many of us, just does not go away.
Yet, He is sovereign and He loves.
THAT is the answer that has been at the depth of my discovery. He loves. I don’t understand, I feel hurt my the burden that I have had to carry, I feel confusion and pain by the hardship that others endure. But HE LOVES. He is faithful and He loves.
To me, it is of great comfort to know, that despite my many unanswered questions, that does not change. God is sovereign and He loves.
I am not at the mercy of an angry universe; (even though there are times it has certainly felt like that), nor of complacency, evil, or a god-less world.
God is sovereign and He Loves.
I was reading this morning and came across this, “God is also working when our treatments are not effective. God is at work in the midst of panic attacks as surely as in their healing. God is present in our sufferings as well as in our healing. God is working everywhere and always, in wounds and in healing, and often in ways we in our finiteness cannot comprehend.” *1
They referenced the following verse:
“Look now; I myself am he! There is no god other than me!
I am the one who kills and gives life; I am the one who wounds and heals;
no one delivers from my power!” Deuteronomy 32:39
The TNIV says “See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal” Deut 32:39
” I will heal.” What a hope-filled promise.
Probably, or rather, certainly, not as fast as we would like. But he will. This is wonderful. On the flip side, it can be very painful to think that the God who loves you may have wounded you. ( There are other reasons, but I don’t know how to explain all of that- theologian needed.). For those of you really struggling with the questions of why, this may be too painful to face right now.
But for me, I found it comforting. It is a comfort to be reminded that there is a promise of healing. Comforting that I am not at the mercy of some unseen evil. Comforting to know that He is at work in our lives, even when it is painful, and seems all wrong; that he is present in our suffering.
Most of all, comforting to know the character of the God who said this. That he is good. That he cares. That he is faithful. That he loves.
If you are suffering, He is with you, the questions will come, and the pain of them may break your heart more than the actual illness/circumstance, but rest for a little while in the assurance that despite everything, he is a good God. He is sovereign, He is faithful and He loves.
*1 -McMinn & Campbell, Integrative Psychotherapy, p. 50.
How the lame run 