The Strange City

God is sovereign. The word sovereign simply means that He is the Supreme Ruler, the One who has ultimate power. God has the final say in everything!

Wow! I never liked that idea! That is, until I learned that the Bible says God is not only in charge but is also the very definition of love (1 John 4:8). That’s really good news: God can only do loving things!

Because God is sovereign and we are not, He often does things that don’t make sense to us. That is what Isaiah 55:9 means when it says, “my ways are higher than your ways.†God is such a great and awesome God that the reasons behind His actions—while always good—will often be “unsearchable†to us as created beings (Romans 11:33).

When the Bible says God’s thoughts are higher than ours, it means His thoughts are much wiser than ours. He thinks differently and knows things we can’t possibly know. And you know what? That is okay!

We can know for sure that God is love and that everything God does is done in love. God became a human to show His love for us and so that we might have a relationship with Him through faith (John 1:1-14; Hebrews 1:1-3). Because of His love, we can choose to trust Him even when we don’t understand what He is doing.

Even when the world is falling apart, God tells us to stand on the truth: God is both loving and sovereign, and when He rules, He rules in love! • Sharon J. Morris

• How do you feel about God being sovereign?

• How can remembering God’s love help us trust Him as the Supreme Ruler?

• In Christ, why can we talk to the Supreme Ruler about anything (Hebrews 4:14-16)?

Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:10 (CSB)

Read Verses:

Revelation 7:9; 21:1-5