Is God Really Sovereign?

“One day the members of the heavenly court came to present themselves before the Lord, and the accuser, satan, came with them. ‘All right, you may test him,’ the Lord said to satan. ‘Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically.’ So satan left the Lord’s presence.” (Job 1:6, 12)

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.” (Genesis 50:20)

I believe the question of God’s sovereignty is one of the most important issues we need to wrestle with and come to a conclusion on as Christians. If we don’t, then we’ll be tossed to and fro by the ups and downs of life. (James 1:6)

Recently, I was encouraged by a pastor to wrestle this question through for myself. I had just been involved in a life-altering accident in which God spared my life. I’m a horse trainer by trade. This spring, as I was training a young horse on the ground in long reins, she suddenly darted off in a full gallop catching my right foot in the reins and whisking me into the air like a para-sailor. As I flew horizontally through the air, I peered at the wall of the indoor arena fast approaching, and my life flashed before my eyes. In that instant, I prepared for my transfer to Heaven. However, at the very last moment before hitting the wall, I fell out of the air and hit the ground, suffering a serious spiral fracture to my femur that required complicated surgery and a subsequent long road to recovery. 

Did I believe God had allowed this to happen to me? (Job 1:6-12) (Let me be clear, I’m saying allowed not caused.) “Yes I did.” Was I going to focus on what the enemy meant for harm? (Genesis 50:20) “No.” 

I knew that, if God had allowed it, then He had a purpose for me in this. (Romans 5:3-5; 1 Peter 1:6-7) And I believe that purpose was to make me more like Jesus. Making me more like Jesus causes me to know my God more intimately and to know how He sees me as His daughter. 

If we can approach the circumstances and trials in our lives with this posture — remaining focused on God and His purpose for us — then it will frustrate the enemy. Why? First, because it takes the attention off our enemy and the negative circumstance. Second, it totally shifts our perspective, influencing the way we pray for the situations we find ourselves in, as well as how we pray for others in the trials of their lives. 

This is the posture I’m attempting to remain in — “declaring God’s sovereignty, and walking in the victory of Jesus!”

Do you want to join me?

Karen Sergey

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Mirror, Mirror

“But don’t just listen to God’s Word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the Word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. — James 1:22-25

God has been challenging me lately from this passage in James. As I read His Word, do I really believe what it says? Do I live like I believe His words are true?

I love to read passages of Scripture from different versions of the Bible. This often gives me a fresh outlook on a familiar passage. Recently, I looked at Ephesians 1 from The Message version. As I did, I sensed the Lord encouraging me, “Personalize it, read it out loud to yourself, and then declare it over those you are praying for.” Here’s a sample of what this sounded like:

God is the Father of [my] Master, Jesus Christ, and He takes [me] to the high places of blessing in Him. Long before He laid down earth’s foundations, He had [me] in mind, had settled on [me] as the focus of His love, to be made whole and holy by His love. Long, long ago He decided to adopt [me] into His family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure He took in planning this!) He wanted [me] to enter into the celebration of His lavish gift-giving by the hand of His beloved Son. — Ephesians 1:3-6 MSG (personalized)

After going through this exercise, I sensed the Lord steering me back to the passage in James and asking me, “Can you look in the mirror and read these verses from Ephesians to yourself? Can you receive what I’m saying about you?” I realize that part of obedience is receiving in my own heart the identity bestowed upon me by my heavenly Father, and then living like a child who knows she is the focus of her Father's love.

How often I forget who I am – and I bet I’m not alone.

Will you take the mirror challenge with me?

Karen Sergey

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