Good Monday morning! Sorry, it isn't Labor Day quite yet. I have heard "it could have been much worse!" a lot these past few days. The indication of answered prayers refer to the hurricane that hit most of the East Coast over the weekend. As we look at the damage on the news, try to imagine what a Category 5 hurricane of that size might have done on the same path. Not a pretty picture and yet the old imagination probably falls short. But have you ever thought back to the days before you gave your life to Jesus and thought that just maybe some sort of invisible shield was over you even in those sinful days? Many incidents in my own life could have turned out much worse but for some inexplicable protection that seemed to be in operation.
You might call it a guardian angel, some might attribute the results to chance, but somewhere along the line I learned to give the glory to God. This is not without basis in scripture. No assault could be made on Job until God authorized it. Even with that, God controlled how far the devil could go each time. Did you ever think that the temptation of Christ could have gone on for over a year? The devil didn't have a pressing engagement elsewhere I'm sure. Once more the events must have been controlled by God. We learn very near the beginning that God told the ocean, "thus far and no farther shall you go." We do not know where exactly that point was and is, and so it might be that we have some homes and buildings built up on borrowed land so to speak. However, while every direction we look seems to hold nothing but chance and chaos, we must look to the one in charge and see that nothing is out of His control.
God did not lose control of His creation when Adam and Eve sinned. The world was not given over to chance and accident. The serpent gained a certain amount of authority when Adam gave up his birthright by his rebellion against God's commandment, but God was not affected the smallest bit. We either believe in and acknowledge God's complete authority or we are lost in that world of happenstance and dreadful chance. Perhaps that should be: lost in the that world of chance with a dreadful enemy on the loose. As for me, I need God to be in sovereign control. I have little control over life and events. I certainly don't want that serpent, the devil, to be in charge. Leaving the world to chance seems downright frightening. Ah, I know, everyone wants the world to be as each person wants it to be.
The only problem there is figuring out how to satisfy some 7 billion different opinions on how the world should be right now. I wonder how many of those diverse opinions would rather that, gulp, you and me not be in the world at all? Praise the Lord that God is in charge! I know so little; I am glad that the omniscient Creator is in charge of His creation. My power is so small that I am glad the all-powerful God is in control. Are you worried today that things seem all of out control? Perhaps you are trying to control too much; let go and let God control what is already under His almighty authority.
Blessed be the name of the Lord!
Bucky
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