Let Me Run This Thing

"With him is wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and understanding." (Job 12:13)

Once I got on a flight out of New York and as we started off, it was terribly windy. But when we were in that turbulence, I didn't jump up and run into the cockpit and say to the pilots, "Now, listen, boys, let me take over." Do you know where we'd have been if I'd have taken over? We'd have been nose down in Times Square. I didn't take over; I let the pilots have the controls.

I don't mind a little turbulence when we're landing or taking off, but when we're flying up there at 17,000 feet and the "fasten your seat belt" sign comes on, I say to myself, "Uh-oh - what are we in for now?" But I have always kept my head and I've never gone forward to the cockpit and said, "Now, you two fellows get out of here" - never!

And yet we're doing that to God all the time. We go to church and we pray to give our heart to the Lord; we join the church and get baptized. But then things get turbulent and we run and say, "Lord, let me run this thing!" That's why we're so messed up in our Christian lives. We're not ready to let God run our world for us - to run our family, our business, our home, our job, our everything.

Lord, no matter how turbulent my life may get I commit ere and now to letting You keep the controls. Amen

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Anything He Wills to Do

"Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else." (Deuteronomy 4:39)

To say that God is sovereign is to say that He is supreme over all things, that there is no one above Him, that He is absolute Lord over creation. It is to say that His Lordship over creation means that there is nothing out of His control, nothing that God hasn't foreseen and planned.

God's sovereignty logically implies His absolute freedom to do all that He will to do. God's sovereignty does not mean that he can do anything, but it means He can do anything that He wills to do. The sovereignty of God and the will of God are bound up together. The sovereignty of God does not mean that God can lie, for God does not will to lie. God is truth and therefore God cannot lie, for He will not to lie. God cannot break a promise, because to break a promise would be t violate His nature, and God does not will to violate His nature.

Therefore it is silly to say that God can do anything. But it is scriptural to say that God can do anything He wills to do. God is absolutely free - no one can compel Him, no one can hinder Him, no one can stop Him. God has freedom to do as He pleases - always, everywhere and forever.

God in heaven above and on the earth beneath, I willingly give You my life; take it and sovereignly to whatever You will to do with it. Amen

~A. W. Tozer~