Who Causes Your Suffering? The Sovereignty of God and Reality of Evil

Article by Christopher Ash, Guest contributor at DesiringGod.org

When suffering comes to us, we naturally — instinctively — want to know what or who has caused it. The answer to that question often affects how we respond to the pain. We focus immediately on the obvious causes. For an illness, we think about what has gone wrong with our body biochemistry. After an accident, we visit and revisit what happened, how it happened and whose fault it was.

“When suffering comes to us, we naturally — instinctively — want to know what or who has caused it.”

When a so-called “natural” disaster strikes, we may think about why people were living where they lived, why the early warnings didn’t work, why the flood defenses were inadequate, and so on. We want to blame somebody or something. And, whether or not we can blame a human agent, behind all that we want to blame God. For God — if there is a God — must have something to do with it all.

After that, we may react with bitterness, recriminations, or resentment. Perhaps these are specific, or maybe we are just left with a residual sense that we have been unfairly treated. At the beginning of the book of Job, Job suffers four terrible tragedies (Job 1:13–19) before losing his health (Job 2:7–8). Two of the four tragedies we might today call “natural disasters” (although the Bible never uses this expression); the other two would perhaps come under the label of “terrorism.”

God’s Job or Satan’s?

One of the deepest questions in the book of Job is this: who caused Job’s terrible sufferings? There is one clear answer, given or assumed by Job, by his three so-called “comforters,” and by the divinely-inspired storyteller. This answer is expressed crisply at the end of the book, where the narrator describes how Job’s family and friends “comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him” (Job 42:11).

The Lord, the covenant God, is the one who brought these sufferings upon Job. He did not simply allow them; he caused them to come upon Job (the Hebrew verb here indicates active causality). Job shows that he knows this is true when he says, “. . . the Lord has taken away” (Job 1:21). He reiterates this conviction when he says to his wife, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). In saying this, the inspired narrator indicates that “Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. . . . Job did not sin with his lips” (Job 1:22; 2:10). Job believes God has done it; and Job is right to believe this.

In both Job 2:10 and Job 42:11, the word translated “evil” indicates not moral evil, but disaster — things that are terrible to experience. The three friends share this conviction. The most common title for God in the book is “the Almighty” (e.g. Job 5:17).

God’s Strange Servant

But under and alongside this shared conviction of the active sovereignty of God, there is an important subsidiary conviction: Satan causes Job’s sufferings. Satan (or, more properly, “the Satan” – this is more of a title than a name, and means something like “the adversary”) is a supernatural creature who has a strange place in the council or cabinet of the “sons of God” (ESV) or “angels” (NIV). He is utterly evil and malicious; and yet he has a job to do. It is his “hand” that actively strikes Job (Job 1:12; 2:6). So, in a sense, he causes them. But as we see if we read the book carefully, he is not the ultimate cause.

“Satan is God’s strange servant to do the will of God by afflicting Job with suffering.”

Older liberal commentators take the easy way out of splitting Job into a part in which God causes Job’s sufferings and a part in which Satan causes them. So, for example, H.H. Rowley takes the words “that the Lord had brought upon him” in Job 42:11 as simply indicating the (erroneous) assumptions shared by Job and his friends. But these words are spoken by the inspired narrator of the story, so we must not take this erroneous, albeit easy, way out.

But more responsible commentators recognize that the Bible holds these together. The parallel accounts of David’s census demonstrate this same parallelism of views. Who motivated David to call this census? The Lord did (2 Samuel 24:1); and Satan did (1 Chronicles 21:1). The Bible — and the book of Job — hold these together. Satan is God’s strange servant to do the will of God by afflicting Job with suffering. Satan does this out of malice; the Lord out of a loving concern for his glory. Satan is — as Luther so vividly put it — “God’s Satan.”

Those who reject the sovereignty of God will either ignore clear verses on God’s sovereignty over our suffering (like Job 1:21; 2:10; 42:11) or assign it (as Rowley does) to the possibly mistaken view of the human characters. Nevertheless, when referring to the “evil” that came upon Job, it is clear “that the Lord had brought [it] upon him” (Job 42:11). This is clear throughout the book and it is written for our instruction.

Evil for Our Ultimate Good

It is of great pastoral importance that we grasp what the Bible teaches about the causality of disaster when it comes to believers. There are two common mistakes. On the one hand, we may neglect Satan altogether and just assume that God rules the world in a simple and direct way. This is, I am told, close to the view of Islam. Some Christians tacitly assume this, but it is not the teaching of the Bible. On the other hand, we may think of Satan as a second, independent, autonomous power of evil, in which case the universe becomes a terrifyingly uncertain place, since we may never be sure whether God or Satan will win any particular round of their contest.

“Satan strikes Job out of malice. The Lord strikes Job out of a loving concern for his glory.”

The Bible, however, teaches that God has chosen to exercise his absolute, direct, and intentional sovereign government of the world through the agency of his chosen council or cabinet of intermediate powers (the “sons of God” or “angels”), some of whom are evil. These powers have no autonomy whatsoever. And yet, in the purposes of God, they are significant and do exert influence, as God has chosen that they will.

To grasp this deep truth about the government of the universe will give Christian believers great confidence — for the sovereignty of God is unchallenged — and yet also great realism, for we will take seriously the role of supernatural evil in the infinite wisdom of God, who is himself utterly untouched by evil, and yet who chooses to weave evil into his purposes of ultimate good.

Christopher Ash is Writer-in-Residence at Tyndale House in Cambridge, England. He is married to Carolyn. Christopher has written a number of books, including the commentary Job: The Wisdom of the Cross.

Mercy for Today

Devotional by John Piper, Solid Joy Devotionals

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.(Lamentations 3:22–23)

God’s mercies are new every morning because each day only has enough mercy in it for that day. God appoints every day’s troubles. And God appoints every day’s mercies. In the life of his children, they are perfectly appointed. Jesus said, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34). Every day has its own trouble. Every day has its own mercies. Each is new every morning.

But we often tend to despair when we think that we may have to bear tomorrow’s load on today’s resources. God wants us to know: We won’t. Today’s mercies are for today’s troubles. Tomorrow’s mercies are for tomorrow’s troubles.

Sometimes we wonder if we will have the mercy to stand in terrible testing. Yes, we will. Peter says, “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (1 Peter 4:14). When the reviling comes, the Spirit of glory comes. It happened for Stephen as he was being stoned. It will happen for you. When the Spirit and the glory are needed, they will come.

The manna in the wilderness was given one day at a time. There was no storing up. That is the way we must depend on God’s mercy. You do not receive today the strength to bear tomorrow’s burdens. You are given mercies today for today’s troubles.

Tomorrow the mercies will be new. “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9).

A Six-Point Summary of the Gospel

Devotional by John Piper, from Solid Joys Devotionals

Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. (1 Peter 3:18)

Here’s a summary of the gospel to help you understand it and enjoy it and share it!

1) God created us for his glory.

“Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory” (Isaiah 43:6–7). God made all of us in his own image so that we would image forth, or reflect, his character and moral beauty.

2) Therefore every human should live for God’s glory.

“Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). The way to live for the glory of God is to love him (Matthew 22:37), trust him (Romans 4:20), be thankful to him (Psalm 50:23), obey him (Matthew 5:16), and treasure him above all things (Philippians 3:8; Matthew 10:37). When we do these things we image forth God’s glory.

3) Nevertheless, we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). “Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him . . . and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images” (Romans 1:21–23). None of us has loved or trusted or thanked or obeyed or treasured God as we ought.

4) Therefore we all deserve eternal punishment.

“The wages of sin is (eternal) death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Those who did not obey the Lord Jesus “will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46).

5) Yet, in his great mercy, God sent his only Son Jesus Christ into the world to provide for sinners the way of eternal life.

“God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

6) Therefore eternal life is a free gift to all who will trust in Christ as Lord and Savior and supreme Treasure of their lives.

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8).

Why We Call the Worst Friday ‘Good’

Article by  David Mathis . Executive Editor, desiringGod.org

It was the single most horrible day in the history of the world.

No incident has ever been more tragic, and no future event will ever match it. No surprise attack, no political assassination, no financial collapse, no military invasion, no atomic detonation or nuclear warfare, no cataclysmic act of terrorism, no large-scale famine or disease — not even slave trading, ethnic cleansing, or decades-long religious warring can eclipse the darkness of that day.

No suffering has ever been so unfitting. No human has ever been so unjustly treated, because no other human has ever been so worthy of praise. No one else has ever lived without sin. No other human has ever been God himself. No horror surpasses what transpired on a hill outside Jerusalem almost two millennia ago.

And yet we call it “Good” Friday.

What Man Meant for Evil

For Jesus, that most horrible of days dawned in Roman custody at the governor’s headquarters. His own people had turned him over to the oppressive empire. The thread that held the Jewish nation together was its pining for a promised ruler in the line of their great beloved King David. Both David himself, and the prophets who came before and after him, pointed the people to an even greater king who was to come. Yet when he finally came, his people — the very nation that ordered its collective life around waiting for him — did not see him for who he was. They rejected their own Messiah.

“It was the single most horrible day in the history of the world. No incident has or ever will be more tragic.”

In his own day, David had seen pagans plot against him as God’s anointed one. “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed” (Psalm 2:1–2). But now David’s words had come true of his greater descendant, as Jesus’s own people turned on him to hand him over to Rome.

Judas Meant It for Evil

Judas wasn’t the first to plot against Jesus, but he was the first to “deliver him over” (Matthew 26:15) — the language of responsibility which the Gospels repeat again and again.

The schemes against Jesus began long before Judas realized money might be made available to a mole. What began with maneuvering to entangle Jesus in his words (Matthew 22:15) soon devolved into a conspiracy to put him to death (Matthew 26:4). And Judas’s love for money made him a strategic first domino to fall in delivering Jesus to death.

Jesus had seen it coming. He told his disciples ahead of time, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes . . .” (Matthew 20:18). At first the traitor was nameless. Now he emerges from Jesus’s own inner circle of twelve. One of his close friends will turn on him (Psalm 41:9), and for a slave’s price (Zechariah 11:12–13): thirty filthy pieces of silver.

Jewish Leaders Meant It for Evil

But Judas didn’t act alone. Jesus himself had foretold that “the chief priests and scribes” would “condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified” (Matthew 20:18–19). And it all unfolded according to plan. “The band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews” arrested him and delivered him to Pilate (John 18:12, 30). As Pilate would acknowledge to Jesus, “Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me” (John 18:35).

On the day God’s chosen Messiah was grossly and unjustly executed, the human agents of evil standing at the helm were the formal officers of God’s chosen people. Fault would not be limited to them, but to them much had been given, and much would be required (Luke 12:48). Jesus was clear with Pilate who deserved more blame: “he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin” (John 19:11).

Even Pilate could tell why the Jewish leaders had it out for Jesus: “He perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up” (Mark 15:10). They saw Jesus winning favor with the people, and quaked at the prospect of their own influence eroding (John 12:19). Jesus’s rise to renown posed such a threat to their fragile sense of authority, with its accompanying privilege, that liberal priests and conservative scribes crossed the aisle to work together.

Pilate Meant It for Evil

In a web of wickedness, guilty parties serve their complementary roles. The Jewish leaders drove the plan, Judas served as catalyst, and Pilate too had his own part to play, however passive. He would try to cleanse the guilt from his conscience by publicly washing his hands of the whole affair, but he was not able get himself off the hook.

As the ranking Roman onsite, he could have put an end to the injustice he saw unfolding in front of him. He knew it was evil. Both Luke and John record three clear instances of Pilate declaring, “I find no guilt in him” (Luke 23:14–15, 20, 22; John 18:38; 19:4, 6). In such a scenario, a righteous ruler would not only have vindicated the accused, but seen to it that he was protected from subsequent harm from his accusers. Yet, ironically, finding no guilt in Jesus became the cause for Pilate’s guilt, as he bowed to what seemed politically expedient in the moment.

“There is not one day, one loss, or one pain in your life over which God cannot write ‘good.’”

First, Pilate tried to bargain. He offered to release a notorious criminal. But the people called his bluff, incited by their leaders, and called for the release of the guilty instead. Now Pilate was cornered. He washed his hands as a show and “released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified” (Matthew 27:26; Mark 15:15). Pilate’s part, no doubt, was more reactive than the conspiring Jewish leaders, but when “he delivered Jesus over to their will” (Luke 23:25) he joined them in their wickedness.

The People Meant It for Evil

The rank and file played their part as well. They allowed themselves to be incited by their conniving officials. They called for the release of a man they knew was guilty in place of a man who was innocent. Rightly would the apostle Peter preach in Acts 3:13–15 as he addressed the people of Jerusalem,

You delivered [Jesus] over and denied [him] in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead.

As the early Christians in Jerusalem would pray, “Truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel” (Acts 4:27). Neither Herod nor the Romans are clean as well. In the end, in a surprising turn, Jews and Gentiles worked together to kill the Author of life.

And soon enough we come to find that it’s not only Judas, Pilate, the leaders, and the people who are implicated. We see our own evil, even as we see through the blackness of this Friday to the light of God’s goodness: we delivered him over. “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3). Jesus was “delivered up for our trespasses” (Romans 4:25). He “gave himself for our sins” (Galatians 1:4). “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). What we meant for evil, God meant for good.

God Meant It for Good

God was at work, doing his greatest good in our most horrible evil. Over and in and beneath the spiraling evil of Judas, the Jewish leaders, Pilate, the people, and all forgiven sinners, God’s hand is steady, never to blame for evil, ever working it for our final good. As Peter would soon preach, Jesus was “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). And as the early Christians would pray, “Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, [did] whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place” (Acts 4:27–28).

Never has Joseph’s banner flown so truly as it did on that day: what man meant for evil, God meant for good(Genesis 50:20). And if this day, of all days, bears not only the fingerprints of sinners for evil, but also the sovereign hand of God for good, how can we not fly Joseph’s banner over the great tragedies and horrors of our lives? Since God himself “did not spare his own Son but gave him upfor us all, how will he not with him graciously give us all things” for our everlasting good (Romans 8:32)?

God wrote “good” on the single worst day in the history of the world. And there is not one day — or week, month, year, or lifetime of suffering — not one trauma, not one loss, not one pain, momentary or chronic, over which God cannot write “good” for you in Christ Jesus.

Satan and sinful man meant that Friday for evil, but God meant it for good, and so we call it Good Friday.

David Mathis (@davidcmathis) is executive editor for desiringGod.org and pastor at Cities Churchin Minneapolis. He is a husband, father of four, and author of Habits of Grace: Enjoying Jesus through the Spiritual Disciplines.

The Moment of Truth: Its Reality

The Moment of Truth: Its Reality

FROM Steven Lawson 

During the trial of Jesus, Pontius Pilate asked a question that has resounded through the ages: “What is truth?” That is the key question for today, when the idea of absolute truth is increasingly and soundly rejected in our culture. To help us understand what’s at stake, we’re examining the conversation between Jesus and Pilate in John 18. In the first post, we looked at the rejection of God’s truth as that which lies behind all sorts of evil in society today. This post will look at the reality of truth. Let us look at our passage again:

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.” Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” (John 18:36–38a)

Jesus says, “For this I have been born and for this I have come into the world.” Here, in part, is the reason for the incarnation. Ultimately, the reason for the incarnation is the cross upon which Christ died. But He also came to bear witness to the truth, to testify, to teach, to declare, to assert, to affirm the truth. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). In that statement, Jesus claims to have a monopoly on the truth. He is the truth. There is no truth outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is no way to be on the way except to believe the truth, and there is no way to have the life except to receive the truth. What is truth? In one word, truth is reality. Truth is the way things really are. Truth is not how things may appear to be. Truth is not what we want things to be. Truth is not what popular opinion polls say things are. Truth is the way things really are. So let us look at a few characteristics that help distinguish and define the truth.

Truth Is Divine

Truth does not come from this world. It does not arise from society and culture. Rather, truth comes down from above. It comes from God, who is truth and who reveals His truth to us. Truth is the self-disclosure of God’s own being and God’s own nature. God is the author of all truth because God is the truth. All things are measured by God Himself—by Himself—to determine what is in conformity with truth and what is non-truth. God is the final judge of all truth. Romans 3:4 says, “Let God be found true, though every man be found a liar.”

Truth Is Absolute

Truth is sovereign. Truth reigns over all. Truth is the definitive standard by which everything is measured. Truth is never relative. It is never arbitrary. It is never conditional. Everything outside the truth is a lie. Jesus said of the religious leaders of that day and those who followed them: “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44). Ultimately, there are only two fathers and two families in the world. There is God the Father, and all those who are of God are in His family, and they hear the truth. And there are those who are of their father the devil, and they hear the lies of Satan.

Truth Is Objective

Truth is propositional. Truth is conveyed in clearly defined words—and words that have a definite meaning. Truth is black and white. Truth is narrowly defined by God’s Word. Truth is rational. Truth is not subjective. Truth is fact; it is not feeling. Truth is contained in the written Word of God. Psalm 119:160 says, “Your word is truth.” Jesus said the same thing in John 17:17. Truth is found in specific words with specific meaning in the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of the living God.

Truth Is Singular

As Jesus represents the truth here in John 18, He speaks of the truth. When He says “the truth,” not only is He stating that it is objective and authoritative, but He is saying that it is singular. All truth from the mind of God fits perfectly together, and there is never any contradiction. What God says to one generation is true for every generation. The Bible speaks with one voice. It sets forth one plan of salvation, makes one diagnosis of the problem of the human condition, presents one history of redemption, and offers one Savior. All of the sixty-six books of the Bible hang together. If you pull a thread in Genesis, your Bible will crinkle in Revelation. Though there are forty-plus authors, writing over a period of sixteen hundred years, there is one primary Author who used secondary authors to record what is in this book—it is the infallible truth of God.

Truth Is Immutable

Truth never changes. What was true in the Garden of Eden is true throughout the Old Testament, is true in the times of Christ, is true in the expansion of the church, is true down through the centuries, and it is true today because God never changes. He is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). It is this eternal, immutable, unchanging God who speaks truth, and when God speaks truth, it flows from his own nature and what God says never changes. His Word “is settled in the heavens” (Ps. 119:89), and the “the word of our God will stand forever” (Isa. 40:8). The truth is always the same from generation to generation. Society may try to redefine morality, culture may try to reclassify right and wrong, but truth never changes.

Truth Is Authoritative

When the truth speaks, God speaks. John Calvin used to say, quoting Augustine, that when the Bible speaks, God speaks. His written Word is authoritative. It makes demands upon our lives. Truth is never just interesting. Truth is never intended to merely provoke our curiosity. No, truth is assertive. Truth has the right to make demands upon our lives because it is the truth of God. Truth possesses the right to rule our lives.

Truth Is Powerful

Truth alone convicts. The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, able to pierce the division of soul and spirit and to expose the innermost thoughts of man. Every other statement just lies on the surface. Only truth can bore down and penetrate into the very heart of a person, exposing their hearts before God and allowing them to see themselves as God sees them. Truth saves. There is in truth the very germ of life. And when that seed of truth is received into the heart by faith, it germinates by sovereign regeneration, and there is life. We have been “born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). Truth sanctifies. It conforms us into the image of Christ. Truth encourages. Truth comforts.

Truth Is Determinative

Your eternal destiny is determined by the truth. Your relationship to the truth will determine where you will spend all eternity. Your relationship to the truth will determine whether you are in heaven or in hell forever. Your relationship to the truth will chart the course of your life in this world. Your relationship to the truth will define your family. It will direct your business. It will be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path. Your entire life is marked by the truth. Everything that does not measure with the truth is a façade. Only once the truth has spoken may we understand what true reality is.

This is the reality of the truth. In our next blog post, we will consider the reception of the truth.

Article originally posted on Ligoneer Ministries:  https://www.ligonier.org/blog/moment-truth-its-reality/

God is Sovereign: Part 13 of Attributes of God

God is sovereign.

Sovereign means a person who has supreme power and authority.  God has no limit to His power and His rule over the worlds and all that is in them.  

“God holds authority over us because He is our author.”  God is the Creator so He is, therefore, the owner of all things.

If you draw a picture, who does the picture belong to?  If you make a clay pot or vase, who owns it?

Consider these verses:

Job 42:2  “I know you can do all things; no plan of  yours can be thwarted”

Psalm 115:3  “Our God is in heaven; He does whatever pleases Him.”

Isaiah 46:10  “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.  I say:  My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.”

Daniel 4:35  “All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing.  He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth.  No one can hold back His hand or say to Him, “What have you done?”

Proverbs 21:30  “There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord”

Ecclesiastes 7:13  “Consider what God has done:  Who can straighten what he has made crooked?”

Proverbs 16:9  “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps”

Lamentations 3:37  “Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?”

What do you learn from all these verses?

There is absolutely NOTHING that happens that God has not allowed to have happen.  There is nothing that can be done to you that is outside of God’s plan for you.  This includes the sin of other people.

Think about the story of Joseph.  Joseph was thrown into a pit by his 11 older brothers.  They argued about killing him but ended up selling him as a slave.  Joseph was taken far from his home and made a slave.  His owner’s wife falsely accused Joseph of hurting her.  Joseph was put in jail and left there for years, forgotten about.  When Joseph gets out of jail, he becomes a high ranking official in Egypt.  Then his brothers come to him needing help.  Joseph is face to face with the brothers who sold him into slavery which led to jail time and a very difficult life for him. 

Joseph says in Genesis 50:20  “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

Even the sin of Joseph’s brothers was part of God’s plan.  God meant it for good.  Think about the immensity, power, just, right, loving, holy, wise God that is so sovereign, He has power and purpose over wrongs done to us and can use those wrongs for His glory and our good.  

Remember, not everything feels good.  God’s ultimate plan for His people is to be like Christ.  In his wisdom and love, He uses hard circumstances to make us like Christ - and when we are more like Christ, we have more joy!

Ecclesiastes 7:14  “When times are good, be happy: but when times are bad, consider, God has made the one as well as the other.  Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future.”

Isaiah 45:7  “I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.”

Lamentations 3:38  “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?”

Can anyone mess up God’s plan for you?

Can another person do or say something that is outside of God’s control?

Can a teacher give an assignment that is not part of God’s plan for you?

Can a boss do anything to you that takes you outside of God's will for your life?

Can a parent’s “no” to something you want to do be against God’s plan for you?

God’s sovereignty would be scary if God were not also good, wise, merciful and kind. But, because God is holy, holy, holy, we can be excited that He controls everything!  His goodness and power will only allow what will bring Him honor and praise, and only what is good for us.  

Romans 8:28-29 says “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.  For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

For believers in Christ, for those who called to be His children, God uses all things - every situation whether easy or hard - for the good of making like more like His Son.  

Are you thankful for God’s sovereignty?

Why?

In what situation in your life do you need to trust in God’s complete sovereignty, knowing that a good, loving, wise God has allowed this situation to happen because He loves you and wants you to be more like Christ where true joy is found?

Getting to know God in relationship:

How will you talk to God differently and read His word differently because of this attribute?

Written by Wendy Wood, CHCC counselor

God is Holy: Part 12 of Attributes of God

God is holy.

If you look up the definition of “holy”, one word used is Godly.  That’s because the word “holy” only describes God.  Holy means perfect and absolutely pure.  The angels singing around God’s throne sing “Holy, Holy, Holy”.  The word “holy” is repeated three times to show emphasis and draw attention to how amazing this attribute of God is.  There is no way for us humans to fully grasp holiness because we are not holy in any way on our own.  God is so holy that He says no one can look at Him and live.  

Exodus 33:20  “But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”

In the bible, everyone who encounters God immediately falls down or hides.  Moses hid his face in the rock.  John fell down almost dead.  Saul (also known as Paul) fell down and was blinded by God.  God’s holiness is so unlike anything we know that we will never fully understand God’s holiness.  But it is worth it to think about this attribute of God because it sets Him apart from everyone and everything else.

Every attribute of God is holy.  God’s love is holy.  God’s mercy is holy.  God’s justice is holy.  God’s anger is holy.  Every attribute of God is holy because it is perfect and pure in goodness.

Exodus 15:11 “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?  Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?”

Revelation 4:8  “And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME."

Our sin separates us from a this Holy God.  A holy God cannot dwell with sinful people.  We must repent of our sin, and trust in Jesus’ death on the cross for our sin, for the Holy Spirit to come and live in us.  It is only Christ’s righteousness and holiness that allow us to enter into relationship with God.

Isaiah 59:2  “but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.”

God’s standard is holiness.  

1 Peter 1:15,16 says “ but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,  since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy”

We are not holy.  To be in the presence of God we must have faith in Christ, and then we are clothed in Christ’s perfection.  It is Christ’s death on the cross the gives us access to God.

Why is God’s holiness so unique?

What does God’s holiness mean to you?

Getting to know God in relationship:

How will you talk to God differently and read His word differently because of this attribute?

Written by Wendy Wood, CHCC counselor

God is Love: Part 11 of Attributes of God

God is love.

“If we want proof of God’s love for us, then we must look first at the cross where God offered up His Son as a sacrifice for our sins.  Calvary is the one objective, absolute, irrefutable proof of God’s love for us.”

1 John 4:9-10 “This is how God showed His love among us:  He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

Love is self-sacrificing.  Love gives.  Love gives to others no matter the cost to oneself.  

The bible is clear that we are not deserving of God’s love.  We were enemies of God (Ephesians 2:3).  We were stuck in our sin (Romans 5:8).  We were spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1).  God chose to love us because He is at His very nature love.  He decided to love us because of who He is.  

John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit…”

God doesn’t love us because we are loveable.  God loves us because He, out of His goodness and mercy, chose to love us.  It is for His Name and His glory that He chooses to love us.

God’s love for His children is special.  When we are surrendered to Christ as our Lord and Savior we are “in Christ”.  This adoption into God’s family, this being brought into a relationship with Christ, is what makes God’s love special.  When we are “in Christ”, God’s glory and our good are linked together.  What brings God glory is good for us, and what is good for us brings God glory.  Being “in Christ” means God’s love for us cannot change because we are connected to the One He loves perfectly and completely.

Ezekiel 36:22-26  “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name...  I will vindicate the holiness of my great name…  I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses…  I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you.”

God acts for His Name’s sake.  God is revealing Himself when He chooses to love us.  God is so great and so loving that He chooses to make Himself known through loving people that are totally unworthy of His love.

God forgives us for His own sake!

Isaiah 43:25  “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”

God is worthy of praise and honor and glory!  He knows that we are most happy and content when we are worshipping Him.  So, He reveals Himself to us and others through forgiving us and loving us.  He deserves praise and worship because He is the Most High God, and He chooses to give us love because it is Glory for Him and good for us!  That is an amazing God!!

What did you do to receive God’s love?

What could you do to lose God’s love?

Romans 8:31- 35,  37-38

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

When we are in God’s family, knowing Jesus as Savior and Lord, God sees us clothed in Christ’s righteousness.  His love for us is the same as the love for His Son.

Think about the last time your parents disciplined you.  What rule had you broken or what had you done wrong that led to your discipline?  Why do you think your parents gave you discipline for your behavior?   Or, if you are a parent, think about the last time you disciplined your child.  

Do you think your parents love you too much to let you continue to make wrong choices?

Do you think your parents love you and want you to learn to obey while you are young so that you can make better choice in the future?

Hebrews 12 addresses how God’s love and discipline are the same thing!

Hebrews 12:7-11

“It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

God says His discipline is because He loves us.  God loves us too much to allow us to keep going down a path of sin that will be harmful to us.  God may put us through a time of discipline so that we change, and grow in our Christlikeness.  That is God’s love for us!  And, God may be using your parents (and teachers) to discipline you so that you grow and change!

Write out a prayer thanking God for His love.

Getting to know God in relationship:

How will you talk to God differently and read His word differently because of this attribute?

Written by Wendy Wood, CHCC counselor

God is Wise: Part 9 of Attributes of God

God is wise.

Knowledge is having all the information on something.  God’s knowledge is perfect; He has all the information and understanding of all things.   God is also wise.  Wisdom is using knowledge to make right choices.   Wisdom is choosing the best course of action or the best response to a given situation.

1 Corinthians 1:25 “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

What does this verse say about human wisdom compared to God’s wisdom?

Job 12:13  “With God are wisdom and might; He has counsel and understanding.”

Isaiah 55:9  “For as the heaven are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

What does this mean about our ability to understand God’s ways?

God sees everything from beginning to end.  That is His infinite (never ending), immensity (huge beyond understanding), immanence (with us), and omniscient (all- knowing) attributes all working perfectly together.  Since God sees the end, and is good and wise, He always chooses the perfect way to get to the perfect end.  All of God’s actions are done in perfect wisdom, first for His own glory, and then for the highest good of His people.

“God is infinite in wisdom.  He always knows what is best for us, and He knows the best way to bring it about.”  

1 Thessalonians 4:3 says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification”.

Sanctification is the change that God does in our lives to make us more and more like Christ.  Sanctification is the lifelong process of getting rid of sin and replacing it with Christ like love.  That is God’s desire for us.  He uses His wisdom to accomplish this goal.

God knows perfectly, with infinite wisdom, what combination of good and bad circumstances will help us become more like Christ.  Because God is good and wise and all-powerful, He uses all things and all people, whether good or evil, to make us more like His Son.

“God in His infinite wisdom knows exactly what adversity we need to grow more and more into the likeness of His Son.  He not only knows what we need but when we need it and how best to bring it to pass in our lives.”

When have you made an unwise choice?  Maybe you really love chocolate and on Easter morning you ate so much chocolate that you got a stomach ache?  We don’t always make wise choices.  We see the immediate pleasure of something that will make us happy and think more will be better.

Think about what happens if you break your arm.  When the bone in your arm is broken, it is no longer lined up correctly with the rest of the bone and cannot heal properly unless it is fixed by a doctor.  A doctor will have to “set” the bones by moving the two pieces of bone to line up correctly.  This is extremely painful!  However, it would be much worse to leave the bones not connected and not lined up.  If we don’t go through the painful process of having the doctor set the bones and then cast the arm for 6 weeks, we would not have the full use of our arm for the rest of our lives.  To go through the painful experience of setting the bones, we need to think about the future and the benefit that comes from having our arm healed correctly.  You have to see that a few minutes of intense pain are worth the benefit of having a healed arm.  Thankfully, our parents and doctors are willing to allow us to suffer in the moment to produce a much better future. As kids we may be so focused on not wanting pain right now that we would foolishly miss out on having the use of our arms for the rest of our lives.

God sees all of eternity!  He sees the good that hard things in our lives will produce.  We do not have God’s knowledge and wisdom.  We would always prefer that life be easy and comfortable.  We would not choose to have suffering or trials in our lives. God’s ways are not our ways!  God is His wisdom, gave us the beautiful gift of eternal life through the painful and awful death of Jesus on the Christ.  We simply do not have God’s mind.  We must choose to trust His wisdom.

What is your life has been a challenge or a hardship?

How might God’s wisdom and goodness be bringing about something good out of this hard circumstance?

Getting to know God in relationship:

How will you talk to God differently and read His word differently because of this attribute?

Written by Wendy Wood, CHCC counselor

God is All-Knowing: Part 8 of Attributes of God

God is all-knowing.

God knows everything.  God has perfect knowledge of all people and all things.  God does not learn.  He cannot be taught anything.  God never changes and His knowledge is complete.  God knows all minds, all creatures, all thoughts, all mysteries, all feelings, all secrets, all desires, all personalities, all good, all evil, all workings, all things visible and all things invisible.  God knows EVERYTHING!  We call this “omniscience”.

God is never surprised.  God never wonders about anything.  God doesn’t have to ask questions to get an answer.  God contains all knowledge.

God knows you perfectly!  He knows all about you - your thoughts, your words (even before you say them!), your actions, your intentions, your desires, your feelings, everything!   A.W. Tozer says, “No talebearer can inform on us, no enemy can make an accusation stick; no forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet and abash us and expose our past; no unsuspected weakness in our character can come to light to turn God away from us, since He knew us utterly before we knew Him and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us.”  God knows you perfectly and still chose to call you to Himself and love you.  Nothing about you, nothing in your actions, nothing in your thoughts or words, surprises God.  He knows you completely!

Think about what these verses mean:

Psalm 147:5  “Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite.”

Psalm 139:4  “Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all.”

Hebrews 4:13 “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”

Psalm 44:21  “Would not God find this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart.”

How can God’s perfect knowledge of you be a little scary?

How does knowing God is merciful and good bring comfort in Him being all-knowing?

How might you live differently if you keep God’s all-knowing attribute in mind?

Getting to know God in relationship:

How will you talk to God differently and read His word differently because of this attribute?

Written by Wendy Wood, CHCC counselor