Earlier this week I was working at my desk when Kim came into the room and handed me my phone. She said, “Something is going on with your phone, it keeps giving you notifications.” So I looked at my phone only to discover that we were under a tornado warning! I thought I had left tornado warnings behind in Alabama! I quickly turned on the television and, sure enough, there was a tornado very close to us.
Storms are no fun. When you find yourself in the middle of a storm in life, and this pandemic is definitely a storm, what can you do? In the previous post, we said that the first step was to pray. Another thing we can do in a storm is trust.
That’s easier said than done. Back in the 1980s I had to fly a lot for my company. I enjoyed the traveling, but my last three flights were rough. In fact, they were so bad that I didn’t fly between 1988 and 2016! My avoidance of flying came to an end when my family decided that we were going on a trip to New York City, and they told me that I could either fly with them or stay home by myself. They were brutal. I sucked it up and got on that plane with my family.
As we were sitting on the plane and we started to taxi, the only thoughts I had were, “Can I trust this pilot? Is he or she experienced? Did the pilot pass flight school with a 4.0 average, or did he just barely pass? Can she handle an emergency calmly and accurately? Can the pilot be trusted?”
In a world that seems like it’s completely out of control, there are people waking up every day with this on their minds: “Is there a pilot controlling this world and can he be trusted?”
The answer is “Yes!” We worship a God who is in complete control of everything happening in this universe, and he can be trusted completely. Not one single part of this virus has surprised God. Not one thing that has happened in your life in 2020 has been out of God’s control. I’m not sure why God is allowing us to go through this, but I know he has a purpose, and his purpose will not be thwarted. God will do what God wants to do. And whatever happens will be for his glory.
I’m writing this post during Holy Week, and I know that some of you will read this on Good Friday. For Jesus’s original followers, that first Good Friday would have been a day with no hope. The man they had believed to be the Messiah, the man they saw heal the sick and even raise the dead, was himself dead, murdered in brutal fashion.
But even as all hope seemed lost, even on the day our Savior died, God was in complete control. Never once was any part of Easter beyond God’s control.
He’s still in control. He’s all-powerful. God is sovereign over all of the universe, from the movement of galaxies that are light-years away, to the movement of a tiny virus on this planet.
Today rather than me doing a lot of writing, I simply want to give you several verses that teach us about the sovereignty of God. When you go to God in prayer, make sure to listen to God instead of just talking to God. Read the Bible so that he can speak to you through his Word. Read these verses, look them up in your Bible, using a translation you prefer. After you read them, pray these verses back to God. I pray that he will strengthen you in the knowledge that we have a pilot and he can be trusted.
Oh, by the way, after that 2016 plane flight, I have fallen in love with flying. Once this virus has passed, Kim and I are hopping on a plane and flying somewhere!
“I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you.” (Job 42:2 NLT)
But the Lord’s plans stand firm forever; his intentions can never be shaken. (Psalm 33:11 NLT)
I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things. (Isaiah 45:7 NIV)
Remember the things I have done in the past. For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me. Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish. I will call a swift bird of prey from the east—a leader from a distant land to come and do my bidding. I have said what I would do, and I will do it. (Isaiah 46:9-11 NLT)
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV)
And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. (Mark 4:39 ESV)
Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan. (Ephesians 1:11 NLT)
Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways! For who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give him advice? And who has given him so much that he needs to pay it back? For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33-36 NLT)