sovereign in life

I am the Lord. I have spoken; it shall come to pass; I will do it. I will not go back; I will not spare; I will not relent; according to your ways and your deeds you will be judged, declares the Lord God.

Ezekiel 24:14

There may not be a more definitive declaration from God taking responsibility for His sovereign rule anywhere else in scripture. It is clear: God is in control of even our most painful suffering. Nothing happens outside His sovereign rule. And no hardship visits us that is not His direct and loving control. For the citizens of Jerusalem, this meant God’s judgment on idolatrous sin was irreversibly upon them as the king of Babylon began the siege of their city (Ezekiel 14:1).

This truth has me thinking hard about God’s sovereign hand at work in my own life. 2018 has been hard for me for personal reasons, even though in terms of ministry, many long term dreams are coming into being. Now in the second half of the year, I have found nearly all the year filled with wistful longings for my past. It’s weird because I am usually a forward thinker. I’ve wished to roll back the calendar (often by decades) nearly every day this year. I’ve filled time watching old family videos and flipping  through old pictures. I don’t know if it is a late mid-life crisis, or just what men catch themselves doing in their mid-fifties, but things seemed so much simpler in my life when my kids were not adults. Yet as I think about it, that weird wistfulness isn’t recognizing God’s sovereign care. Peppered with the nostalgia is a worry about the future. I conclude today that this action isn’t very gospel-centered on my part and I should stop.

God is in control of my life and always has been. What He is doing in my life NOW is for His glory and my good and is JUST AS GOOD as what I saw him do 20 or 30 years ago. He has spoken in His Word and it shall be. And it has all been done in Christ because He began the good work in me and is completing it for HIS GLORY! All the promises I have in Jesus are great! I will trust Him in this current life stage and stop idealizing (and idolizing) my past.