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The Sovereignty of God in Pain

A NOTE FROM PASTOR MARGE


What happens, from our perspective, when God doesn’t come through? When God doesn’t heal your child from a disease or when the doctor’s report is terminal or when you get let-go from your job or you’ve prayed and prayed to be reconciled with a family member yet nothing is happening or when a tsunami kills thousands of people? One of the most frequent questions I get asked as a pastor goes something like this: “If God is sovereign, all-powerful, and all-loving, then how do you explain (insert whatever painful situation)?” You see, I'm a girl who believes that the Bible teaches us that God is sovereign above all things. He's before all things, He's in all things, and He holds everything together. Every single thing in heaven and under heaven God is in charge of and He's never been surprised. That He is the supreme ruler over the macro and the micro. That doesn't mean that we do not reflect His image or that we can't make decisions, but that God has never been surprised. It gives me a great sense of peace that God is in-charge of all things because if not, then what hope do we have? I do not believe the Bible teaches that we serve a God who’s driving around in an ambulance that’s in this great universe just trying to clean up the messes that we are making. But that God is in charge of all things. In God's sovereign almighty plan to redeem the world unto Himself it seems that a few times in the Scriptures this sovereign plan bottlenecks down to one individual person. And God is going to take this one little nobody, who finds herself in some pretty terrible circumstances, to potentially save the circumstances for anybody who would believe. This is the story of a girl named Ruth.


Marge



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