God’s sovereignty is defined by his omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence (all knowing, present everywhere, all powerful). Nothing that happens within our world is hidden from God's view or outside of God's provision for rescue for those who would call on Him.
The world’s upheaval that includes pandemics and devastating wars, economic upheaval and our personal suffering, struggles or brokenness have not escaped God's attention and can only be answered by His presence, knowledge and power.
In the dictionary the definitions of “sovereign” are words and phrases like superior, greatest, supreme in power and authority, ruler, and independent of all others. In practical application, God’s sovereignty is best described by simply saying, “God is always in control”.
The doctrine of God’s sovereignty is despised by the natural mind. Human pride loathes the suggestion that God orders everything, controls everything, and rules over everything. The carnal mind, burning with enmity against God, abhors the biblical teaching that nothing comes to pass except according to His eternal decrees.
Sadly, the western world’s lack of recognition of God’s sovereignty in the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus has given testimony to a dangerous spirit of independence, in defiance of God. Some Christians have turned on each other or have fully concentrated their minds on a hope that humanity can control these events. The result is the rejection of God’s sovereignty. There has been little public evidence of people recognising God as ultimately in control. This foolishness leads us to take credit for being able to control the pandemic, leading to God’s sovereign presence being rejected.
Psalm 103 v 19 “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His Kingdom rules over all”.
God is in control of all things and rules over all things. He has power and authority today over nature, earthly kings, history, angels, and demons. God’s sovereignty alone can mitigate against the result of a disrupted and sin ladened world.
The believer who has received God's grace of salvation can actively embrace the presence and the power of God in their journey through this broken world so disrupted by sin, unbelief, and deception.
A powerful provision for us in Christian life is the knowledge of God’s sovereignty. No leader reigns or pandemic smites mankind that God is not able to use for the furtherance of His invitation, judgement, and intervention in the world. Mercifully, the most peace-giving truth that brings focus to God's rescue from our own sinful natures is the doctrine of the sovereignty of God. Nothing is hidden from God and therefore we do well to acknowledge Him every day in our walk of faith that is challenged by our ever-present old nature.
I think for most of us we are so aware of our own sinfulness! The Bible declares in 1 John 1:8 that “if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves.” Ever since the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden, humanity has engaged in a raft of sinful conduct involving our personalities, attitudes, speech and moral decisions all leading to rejection of God’s invitation of rescue from sin.
Because God is sovereign and He loves you, nothing will ever come into your life that He does not either decree or allow. Consequently, no matter what you face in life, you can take comfort in the fact that God is sovereign.
When Jesus invites us to come to Him in repentance, He does so as sovereign who knows all our struggles with sin. His invitation is the gift that God alone can provide to the sinner seeking rescue.
1 John 1: 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
That’s what being sovereign means. It means being the ultimate source of all power, authority, for the salvation and sustaining of the believer.
In conclusion
The sovereignty of God demands that we must acknowledge God as sovereign.
The invitation to us as sinners is to allow His best purposes to be realised in our lives through confession of sin and submission to His Sovereignty.
Recognising God’s sovereignty takes us on a journey of repentance, transformation, service in mission and graduation to our citizenship in heaven!
Let God be God. Let God be Sovereign