Can accepting that God is sovereign give me back my joy?

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Colossians 1:16 “...all things were created by him, and for him.”

I’ve been writing about things that steal our joy, and I’ve written about the love of God, the goodness of God, and the mercy of God. I’ve reminded both my readers and myself that nothing in our lives will make sense unless we include God in the equation.

That’s still true, and the attributes of God I’ve written about are also true. However, the one attribute of God that most clearly defines what our relationship with Him must be is that God is sovereign. That means He possesses “supreme or ultimate power,” whether we agree with Him or not.

We writers are a possessive bunch. When we’ve written something, it belongs to us, and there are copyright laws and intellectual property lawyers to protect our rights to our own creations. No one has the right to tell me what I can or cannot do with those creations.

If that’s true about my little “scribblings,” how much truer is it about our great Creator God? Because all things were created not only by God, but also for God, they belong to Him. (Col 1:16) And if all things, including us, belong to Him, then, “…who are [we] [to reply] against God?” (Rom 9:20)

The book of Job tells the story of a righteous man who loved and served the Lord to the best of his ability. Yet hard times came, and he lost everything…his money, his possessions, his children and then his health. His grieving, discouraged wife told him to, “Curse God and die,” and his sorry friends wrongly judged him and were no help at all.

In the middle of these fierce storms, Job began to ask why, and who could blame him? You and I have been there, haven’t we? He knew he wasn’t involved in some terrible hidden sin…that he was a good person. And he had believed that bad things don’t happen to good people. He was wrong.

Defending himself, Job said, “behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me.” (Job 31:35) God did exactly that, but it wasn’t the answer Job expected. God first said, “Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.” Then He asked a few questions of His own, starting with, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (Job 38:3-4)

I don’t claim to know why my friend lost her daughter, why another friend is battling cancer again, or why my grandson had leukemia. I can’t understand why, after a lifetime of investing our faith, our time and our resources into our loved ones, we’re crying bitter tears at their choices. How could we understand those things?

But even when I don’t understand, I know that God is faithful. He cannot lie, but must be true to what He has said. And He said He has created everything to bring honor and glory to Himself and good to us. So that will happen whether or not we can see it now or understand the pathway it takes to get there. And remembering that God is still in control in the midst of our storm will give us back our joy.

Challenge for Today: What might happen if we, just for today, stopped fighting and accepted that God is sovereign?