How do we balance our faith with God’s sovereign will?

God’s will in our lives, and in the earth do NOT automatically come to pass.  Am I saying God is not sovereign?  No, not at all.  However, some people in their effort to explain away tragedy, loss and sickness, attribute characteristics to God and call it sovereignty.

What does it mean to be sovereign?  The dictionary defines it as: independent, autonomous, self-governing, and supreme.

In other words, God doesn’t need anything, He is self-reliant, self-determining, and the highest.  He has the ultimate authority in HOW everything works.

And in God’s sovereign design, He has given the earth to man.  The Bible clearly explains how God has given man the authority to rule over it, and the blessing to prosper in it.  (see Genesis 1:28).  If you don’t understand this, you are likely to assume that whatever happens is God’s will.  But because God did this, His will in the earth doesn’t automatically happen.  This was His choice.

People can’t concede to the possibility of an almighty God taking His hands off the wheel and letting the earth go out of control.  As a result, some have taken sovereignty to an extreme, believing that God makes decisions case by case, and for reasons that are totally out of our realm of understanding or control.  They want to have some explanation and comfort in believing God would choose or at least allow whatever they are suffering.  It is a scapegoat mentality that excuses either themselves or others from the truth.

From the foundation of the world, God has good planned for His children.  (You can see this in Genesis, Chapter 1).  Jesus Christ came to restore all that God has given to man before the fall.  Faith in what Christ has done reconciles us back to God; restoring our identity, authority, blessing and purpose.  This is salvation!

Faith is what allows us to receive all that God has provided in Salvation.  It is the bridge to God’s grace.  All that God has for us is given through His sacrifice and faith receives it.  God will not force His perfect will on us, but has made it our choice to accept Him and His will for us through the sacrifice of Jesus.  Repentance (changing your mind to agree with God) is up to us.

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Yes, God is sovereign.  God CAN do anything, but He has sovereignly given us a part to play by believing Him.  We were created with free will and He wants us to freely choose to trust and be dependent on Him. God will not go back on His word even if we choose not to be.  He won’t force Himself or make the decision for us.

2 Timothy 2:13 If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

Now, anyone can receive God’s grace, God’s perfect plans, favor and blessing through a trusting and dependent relationship with Him.  This is the relationship between grace and faith.

Romans 2:11 For there is no respect of persons with God.

Romans 10:13 For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”

God has given us everything through Jesus, now we have the choice to believe and receive.

Jesus said, “have faith in God” (Mark 11:22)

And tells us in Mark 9:23, “….all things are possible to him who believes.”

We are already blessed.  We just do our part and believe it!

Ephesians 1:3-4 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world…”

When we believe and act in faith, these spiritual blessings become physical realities.

For more about the relationship between our faith and God’s grace, see  article, “Faith is the bridge to God’s grace”