I have to admit that there are days I would like to live…alone. Okay, not necessarily by myself, but I’d like to take my husband and my son, run away, and live somewhere where society and culture cannot influence us.
Living in America today can be pretty frightening. People are selfish, narcissistic, mean, unconcerned. Sin-full.
What is a Christian to do?
Tuesday was the primary election in Indiana, where we live. The polls closed at 7:00pm, and at 7:01 pm, a winner was declared. By 10:00pm, my husband and I, via phone (because he works nights), added another refrain to our ongoing conversation: how do we prepare for the “what ifs”? Where is the balance between trusting God and being responsible parents?
What does it look like to trust God when society is effectively collapsing around you?
Last night I read an account from a woman who survived, as a Jew, in Nazi Germany. She was a Messianic Jew who attended a Protestant church in the town in which she grew up, so they never came for her. But they came for her three aunts, her friends, her neighbors. She was dismissed from two schools because she wasn’t Aryan; she lived in one room, with her parents, siblings, bedbugs, and little food, heat, or light.
Are we prepared to live that life if it comes to it?
I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. I watched Election Day with morbid curiosity – the mix of zealous voters, the ignorant posts about fluff, and the “Christians” absolutely losing their minds over the future. I saw post after post about how sad Jesus must be about what was happening in election booths.
(then I watched fights break out when friends and family realized who each other had voted for, according to their reactions to the results)
Do you realize that nothing is a surprise to God?
Nothing is a surprise to God. Not one single solitary thing that happens in this universe takes our Creator by surprise.
Daniel 4:32b tells us “the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone He wishes.” This comes in the middle of a passage directed at King Nebuchadnezzar. This king had Daniel, one of the godliest men in Babylon, as his adviser. He’d already witnessed countless acts of God’s power and presence, but he had turned away once again and put the focus on himself. God is now going to punish Nebuchadnezzar until he admits “the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes.”
“Sovereign” means that God is above all – in charge of all – has it all under control. The official definition, according to Merriam-Webster, is “one possessing or held to possess supreme political power.”
God has it all in the palm of His hand.
Do I worry about the future we are leaving for our children, and specifically, for my child? Yes, absolutely. I look at my precious child and am deeply concerned over what he will experience as he grows up in a culture that is increasingly anti-Christian. I fear for his safety, that he will suffer physical harm and pain, that life will be hard beyond what I can even imagine for him.
But…but…then I remind myself: God is sovereign. Nothing is a surprise.
Daniel 4:32 leads to Jeremiah 27:5 – “With my great power and outstretched arm I made the earth and its people and the animals that are on it, and I give it to anyone I please.”
That leads to Psalm 115:16 – “The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth he has given to man.”
That leads to Psalm 115: 3 – “Our God is in heaven; He does whatever pleases Him,” which leads to Psalm 42. And this is where I can park myself when I worry about the future:
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
under the protection of the Mighty One
with shouts of joy and praise
among the festive throng.
Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.
By day the Lord directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.
I say to God my Rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?”
My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
“Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” No matter what, God has us in His hands – He has it all under control.
Are things scary right now? I think so, and you might, too. But is God still sovereign? Yes! Is He on His throne? Yes! Can we still put our hope in Him?
Absolutely.
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What a good word, Rachel!
Don’t you love knowing that nothing ever surprises God!
My pastor often said, “The trinity never meets in emergency session!”
Blessings to you today~
Melanie
I adore this, Rachel. I was sure that your reference in Daniel was wrong – because Daniel 4:17b is the refrain I cling to when life gets crazy: “The Most High rules in the kingdom of men.” I never realized that the same little phrase is tucked in the same chapter several verses later! Thank you for sharing this wisdom – it’s perfect for such a time as this.
So comforting to know and really understand that absolutely nothing takes Him by surprise, God is sovereign and in complete control of everything. Amen!