Sovereign

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding."
-Proverbs 3:5
      Last winter I attended a retreat hosted by my church's college group. The retreat was a great time of relaxing and fellowship with others. That is where I came up with my key verse for the year of 2013. I know that it has been awhile since the retreat, but I was thinking about recently and I now I want to write about it.
      During the retreat there were no scheduled events except for meals and some outdoor activities. I enjoyed the freedom to read my Bible, pray, fellowship with others, or simply rest. On the second day we did our outdoor activities which included a low ropes and high ropes challenge. I love doing these types of things because I enjoy doing outdoor things like sports. During the high ropes challenge I saw many people that were scared of the obstacle course and could not complete. One thing I also saw was that people were scared to be lowered down after the course was over.
      I always try my best to look like I'm not scared of those kinds of things, but even if I look fine sometimes I too have doubts and fears. Will the rope hold me up? Can I trust the person controlling the rope?  These questions come up often when people do obstacle courses like the one I did at this retreat. While the person running the course assures us that it is safe, we still doubt and fear. Why? Shouldn't we know that this person has a lot of experience running these courses? Why can't we trust them?
      These fears and doubts in the person telling us to lower ourselves down on the rope come from a lack of trust. We don't fully trust the person or the ropes that are holding us up. This made me think; how do we learn to trust people? The way we learn to trust other people is to know them. If we know that the person controlling the rope is fully capable of bringing us down safely, we can trust them. In other words, we know that they are sovereign in this situation.
      Sovereignty is a word that not many people use here in the United States. Sovereignty means the power or authority a person has. When someone is sovereign, it means they have power and control over something. A sovereign is a synonym to a king or a queen, both of which are people in control over a nation. When I think of the word sovereign, the first thing that usually comes my mind is God. He is the only one who is sovereign over everybody and everything. He is in control of every situation in each and every one of our lives.
      Why do many people find it hard to trust God then? I believe that it is because people can't see God's sovereignty. When I was up there on the obstacle course, even though I knew I was safe because I had someone who was in control watching me, I still had fear. Fear is a very difficult thing to overcome. However, the Bible claims that "perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18)". Also, even though we certainly do not have perfect love, God does. It is not our love that casts out fear, but the love that God has for us. He is in control of everything in our lives, both the good and the bad.
      If God is sovereign over our whole lives, why do we have bad times? "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God (Romans 8:28)". Even in the bad times, God is making it work for our good. How is this so? All thing work together. Although one event may seem bad, later we can see that God used it for our good. He is completely in control even in the bad times in our lives. A parent disciplines his child to teach him something good. Even though the child may not realize why they are going through a bad time, later they will realize that it was for their good. The same is true for us when we have bad times. If we trust in God and we love Him, we know that He causes all things to work together for good. Place your trust in the one who is sovereign over everything- God almighty.
-Smart