Sovereignty Updated- Thoughts from Ruth 1

So, as things progress and the conclusion to the collusion comes closer I have found that throughout my exploration of God and His sovereignty there is, in fact, one thing that must be mentioned in conjunction. That is that we must believe that God is not just sovereign, which He is, but that we must likewise know that God is good. I have found that we dare not attempt to simply hold on to one idea while throwing the other out the window, for if we do we harm ourselves by placing our knowledge and even faith of God in a very insufficient and dangerous location. If one decides that God is sovereign but that God is not good, for how could such a loving God allow all the evil that is present, then they will know God is in control, that He is above all, that He rules and reigns, but they will indeed think that God is cruel, that He is unjust, and that He is mean and capricious. My hope is that it goes without saying that this is a most fine line to walk upon. Likewise, if one holds to the goodness of God, but not the sovereignty, one opens themselves up to odd theologies, becoming an open theist. They may believe that God is good, that He is loving, kind, patient, forgiving, but they will assume that God is just as surprised as we are when tragedy strikes, that He was not aware of what was to happen. There is no thought that God can intervene if He desires, that God has no ultimate control on the outcome, and that, my friends, is a very scary thought.

Even with the knowledge that God is sovereign that He can intervene in any circumstance, because He is the sovereign He can do as He pleases; this does not negate the goodness of God, rather it magnifies it. In God's own self-disclosure of Himself in Exodus 34 we find that God states that He is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin.

We must not allow ourselves to get to a place of folly of bitterness so much so that we are not able to see our difficulties as, not necessarily coming from the hand of God, because I do not believe that God causes trials and troubles, but we may rightly surmise that everything must at least pass through the hand of God. That is to say that if we believe in the providence of God, the providential hand of God, than we may acknowledge an affliction, as Puritan John Flavel would state, as a "sanctifying affliction." I feel this is one thing that may be grossly overlooked, when we as the body of Christ have become so consumed with health and wealth and living for great relationships.

While these are certainly not bad things, nor am I condemning any who may have these, the issue arises when we place these as indicators set to mark out the level of spirituality we have attained. We see from the life of Christ that even though you may be perfect, sinless, it by no means indicates that we are guaranteed a life of health, wealth and prosperous relationships.

As I mentioned in a previous post, it seems that often we throw the question of why up to God when things get rough, things get hard. This is certainly an example of honesty which I greatly praise and desire for all. The question that God desires to be hand in hand with an upset, honest heart is that of how. How may these difficulties be used to sanctify me, to allow me to love God more deeply, to obey Him more readily? For as believers we have much affliction, but we may choose to acknowledge that it is a sanctifying affliction. This changes the persepective vastly.

May be we be honest as Naomi finds herself, though she is bitter at God, she is seeing God as foe not friend, she is honest with herself, with the people of God and most importantly with God. Because, as we see in verse 8, Naomi prays the prayer of Hassad upon her daughters in law. She knows deep down that her God is a god of Hassad, that He is indeed both sovereign and good. She believes that the ultimate outcome will be a Rom. 8:28 conclusion because it is all set to sanctify, to reunite and to restore.

I find myself taking the example of Naomi, desiring to be honest with myself, the people of God and, of course, God, Himself. I am in the process of seeing not only the over all, ultimate reign of the sovereign, but also that just as important, indeed, acting as the shadow of the sovereign is the goodness of a great and loving God. Because God is not just sovereign, He is good.

-BS