To Live is Christ — knowing God is sovereign

Insurance companies often exclude what they used to call “acts of God”from their insurance policies. Now, the term is usually “natural disasters” with extra fees to insure us from the damages of hail storms, floods, and lightning strikes. My devotional reading offers something better than insurance.

Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:12–14)

According to these verses, God is the power behind drought, insect invasions, and viral epidemics. Some say no, He only allows them. They mean that God has the power to stop such things, but for reasons we might not realize, He chooses to let them happen. That means something or someone else is running things and God is just watching?

We do all sorts of mental gymnastics to get around the idea that God is sovereign and that He is involved in the affairs of this world. The Germans call it die wechselfälle des lebens, or the ups and downs of life. Many Christians say something similar in that “life happens” without putting God in the mix. This is scarily close to the philosophy of the deists who assume that God wound up the world and now stands back without interfering in anything that happens. They say that He is not a personal God, miracles cannot happen, and sin is not an issue because the world is what it is. In other words, God is not part of what is going on.

These verses from 2 Chronicles say otherwise. God plainly told Solomon that He is involved in this world. He claims that He can shut up heaven, or command insects, or even send a plague on His people. Behind that is the fact that He sees our sinful state and cares that we are alienated from Him by our sin. He will do whatever it takes to bring us to the realization of our responsibility to bring that sin to Him.

Sometimes disasters happen because God is a personal God who cares about our lives. Whatever happens to us, when seen from that perspective, puts a whole different spin on the calamities of life. Instead of grumbling, shaking our fists at Him, or dismissing Him and shrugging, those who trust that He is good and that He is in control will humble themselves to seek His face and turn from their sin. When anyone does that, then they just might experience the miracle of answered prayer, forgiveness, and a healing, not just our land, but an amazing repair of that broken relationship with Him.