What If ~ blog

Last night before falling asleep I believe God gave me an idea on a series of emails/podcasts to encourage us in our battle to gain freedom from our sexual brokenness. I have been reading the book AWE by David Paul Tripp…which I believe is awesome. It has helped me blow away the dense fog that develops in our thinking and creates in us a very poor idea of who our Father, the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit truly are and how that should impact us not only in our recovery but in our entire life.

I am calling it the What If… series. Taking 8 biblical truths that we need to not only know and believe…but then act on as we live our lives. I will ask the question What if…followed by some biblical truth about God and how knowing that can and should impact us not only in our struggle but in living our Christian life in a way that draws us closer to Him and makes Him more awesome in our heart, mind, and soul.

1. What if you fully believed that God is completely sovereign over your life?

Many people will say they believe that God is sovereign. But what does that really mean that God is sovereign? This word means one having supreme power and authority. Only God, our Father is sovereign. There is none above Him. There is none who has greater power than Him. He is the Creator, Sustainer, and Ruler over everything that exists. He created everything and holds everything together.

We can learn this from Genesis 1 where we are told how the universe was spoken into being. But let’s also look at the way the Apostle John writes about it in his gospel record being guided by the Spirit to record what is true…

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.

Just so we are clear this passage is teaching us that everything that is in existence was because of the Word of God…the Son of God who created it…all. There is nothing that exists except that Christ brought it into existence. And since He created it all He is the Owner of it all and is Sovereign over it all. Paul says it this way in 1 Timothy 6:15-16…

“He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion!”

Now, what if we fully believed that the God whom we call our Father, our Lord, and our Comforter He is completely sovereign in our lives? That He is not in some distant other universe doing things there. That He is not some old grandfatherly like a man catching naps because of His age nor too busy to really know what is happening in our lives. No, He is real, and He is really sovereign. Almighty. All-Knowing. All wise…and perfectly Holy.
And what if you believed that He

is really sovereign over your life? He has given to you free will and we are free to make most of the choices in our lives…but He knows ahead of time literally…before time existed what we would decide and has always known what we would do…even before He created the universe?

With that truth firmly planted in our thinking…then listen to what Paul writes in Romans 8:28.

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

This is an astonishing verse with incredible truths in it…it seems almost too good to be true…but it is good, and it is true.

The sovereign God who created and sustains everything in the universe and who is with you every single day of your life can and will take whatever happens to you and will use it for your good…to those who are called into His family and therefore has a purpose for your life.

Now this belief will be more difficult for some than others. Especially if you have suffered in your life where something tragic has happened to you or you chose to do that put you in a real traumatic experience. A young couple having their baby die or being in an accident where someone died or was severely injured. Or your house and all your possessions ablaze from an out-of-control forest fire.

Note this verse is NOT saying nothing bad will happen to you because bad things happen to us all the time. Some are minor problems while others almost completely destroy us. So, we know those things happen to Christians and this verse is not telling us that God will bubble wrap our lives.

No…it is saying that no matter what happens in our lives He who is Sovereign can take whatever has happened and will cause that tragic experience to help conform you into a more godly and Christ-like person. And this is where the cliché NO PAIN NO GAIN is really applicable.

This passage promises us that no matter what happens in our lives…God has the sovereign power of having it used for His good and our good in our lives. And His ultimate good is found in the very next verse…

“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined
to be conformed to the image of His Son…”

That is the good that the Sovereign God wants to have happen to us…we are to be being conformed to the image of His Son. For us to become more like Jesus in everything we think, do, and say.

What would that look like in your life? What if, like Jesus, you could get up early every day to spend time with the Father? What if we allowed the pain of the evil things in our lives to cause us to stand back…and back away…from the sinful and backward choices we make?

He not only has the capacity to do that. He promises He will do that if we understand that He really is Sovereign over the days of our lives and we can thank Him that in spite of how painful life looks or can be…we keep our eyes on Him expressing our thankfulness and gratitude for His leading and protecting us and endure the suffering by having faith in His love for us and His sovereign power over our lives.

What if you really believed that your God is Sovereign?

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