God is Sovereign

I recently found a book called “the Sovereignty of God”. To be honest, I had no clue what “sovereignty” meant. It is supreme and independent power or authority. Simple enough. That describes God. As I have read through this book, I have learned a lot of things that apparently aren’t common teaching in the church, or at least any church I have attended most of my life. What I am learning has changed my perspective on a lot of what I believe and who I will become as I grow as a Christian. I’m still trying to work out some of it in my mind, and some I may never totally understand, because it is God and nobody can fully understand God.
First of all, because God is Sovereign, that is he is the supreme authority, he is in full control, dealing with life circumstances should be easier. Not saying difficulties won’t come, but nothing, absolutely nothing can happen to me without God being in full control of the situation. It may feel totally out of control for me, but as long as I can remember God is in control I have no worries. “God is in control” is a very common Christian phrase that I doubt very many really believe. God has a plan for all of creation, he is working out his plan completely down to every last little detail. Nothing happens without him allowing it to happen.
If I believe God is fully in control, then I really don’t have any control, even when I think I do. If there is ever a time when I am in control, then God is not, because that would be impossible. If God is ever not in control, then he is no longer sovereign and He is no longer always in control. So God is sovereign, and he is always in control. But then what about free will, don’t we as human beings have free will? The best way I can describe it is this. The journey through life is like a white water raft ride. Sometimes it is smooth, other times it is rough, however God is always in control of the entire ride. He is there to protect and keep safe no matter how rough the rapids may get. There is a choice each person must make on this raft, trust God fully and enjoy the ride, or resist his control and try to take control of things. However, when a person tries to take control they are now rowing upstream. No matter how hard they row upstream the ride downstream is not going to change. The raft is still going to go over the same rapids, the same smooth areas, and the same river either way. One may believe he has control but actually doesn’t. The life events are the same, see the choice in free will is not in what we will do in life, but our response to it.
This brings up another point, and a strong word of caution. Many are offended by others for different reasons, they refuse or find themselves unable to forgive others for wrongs done. When the sovereignty of God is brought into the picture, it can be easy to move the blame and anger from an individual to God. After all God is in full control, whatever wrongs a person has done against another was allowed and fully known by God, so now suddenly God is to blame for the action. Here we must be careful to not blame God, because as soon as we do, we are once again rowing upstream. God has a supreme plan, he can see the big picture, we must trust him so fully to know that he is working out every single little tiny detail to fulfil his plan. He is not going to allow anything to change his perfect plan, and that offence from the other person was just one of the rapids that must be crossed. So just forgive the other person, because that is what God tells us to do, and move on.
My final point on this subject is prayer. If God has a plan and nothing is going to change his plan, then why pray? 1st He tells us to ask for anything in his name according to his will and he will give it. Most ignore the part “according to his will”. If you are asking for something that is not in his plan, you probably aren’t going to get it. So this is where at the beginning I said it is going to change what I believe. I believe the purpose of prayer is simply communication with God. God loves us and wants us to communicate with Him. We should ask for our needs to be met, but prayer should be much, much more than just asking for everything all the time. In fact after realizing the truth of the sovereignty of God and his full and total control, I’m not sure I will spend much of my prayer time asking him for things. As parents we want our children to talk to us, but how would we feel if the only communication our children ever had with us was only asking for things they want. We would get pretty tired of it pretty quickly. We still don’t give them everything they want but we do provide for their needs. God is our Father, in the same way he wants us to just talk to him.