Kings are often referred to as sovereigns. So we move from the truth that God is king to the truth that God is sovereign. What does the word sovereign mean? As a noun it refers to a supreme lord, ruler, magistrate or king. As an adjective it qualifies someone as being supreme in power and possessing absolute dominion. Our God is supreme in power, authority, and dominion—He is the ultimate sovereign king!
King Jehoshaphat acknowledged the absolute dominion of God when he prayed, “O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you” (2 Chronicles 20:6). Jeremiah explained the supremacy of God when he said, “Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. You show steadfast love to thousands, but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them, O great and mighty God, whose name is the LORD of hosts, great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds” (Jeremiah 32:17-19). Paul worshiped God as the supreme ruler in a letter to Timothy, “He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen” (1 Timothy 6:15-16).
Do you acknowledge and testify of the sovereignty of God in you life? If not, why not? Do you not agree with Jehoshaphat that no one is able to withstand God? Do you not see that Jeremiah revealed that God sees all the ways of man and will reward each accordingly? Don’t you think that we should stand in awe of God like Paul, who after highlighting just a few of God’s marvelous attributes exclaimed, “To him be honor and eternal dominion”? Perhaps you would speak more of God’s lordship over you by taking some time and reflecting upon your life and how God has intervened in powerful ways in the past. A passage of Scripture that helps me do just that is Ecclesiastes 3:1-14–the “Time Poem”. It reveals that God rules over every area of my life and helps me keep the things of this world within an eternal perspective. Because He makes “everything beautiful in its time,” I can rest in the sovereignty of God. When I don’t understand what God is doing, I can be a peace because my Lord and supreme King can be trusted. He knows best and that brings comfort and peace. When you are struggling to understand your King’s ways, I encourage you to read the “Time Poem”.
I will close by encouraging you to reflect upon the blessings of God’s sovereignty in Romans 8:28-31, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” What joy, awe, and wonder as we behold our sovereign King!
With Prayer, Mark © April, 2011
Selected Verses on God is Sovereign
ESV – Emphasis added
Ecclesiastes 3:1-14, For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil–this is God’s gift to man. I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.
Act 4:13-30, Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another, saying, “What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people, for all were praising God for what had happened. For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than forty years old. When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, Who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’– for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
Revelation 6:9-11, When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
Magnify! 