God is in control

A particular family situation had me anxious today. Since I don’t have permission, I cannot share the details, but I can say that I’ve battled with negative thoughts. Maybe God is not in this. Maybe what seemed like good news is really a disaster waiting to happen. Maybe the enemy is winning. My theology says that God is sovereign, but at times it doesn’t seem like it.

In the Old Testament, Edom thought the land where God’s people lived would be an easy conquest. Perhaps they heard about God’s sovereignty, but even if they had, they disregarded this knowledge. However, God had words for them. These are verses from my devotional book for this day . . . 

I will make Mount Seir a waste and a desolation, and I will cut off from it all who come and go. And I will fill its mountains with the slain. On your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines those slain with the sword shall fall. I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities shall not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the LORD. Because you said, “These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will take possession of them” — although the LORD was there — therefore, as I live . . .  I will deal with you according to the anger and envy that you showed because of your hatred against them. And I will make myself known among them, when I judge you. And you shall know that I am the LORD . . . . (Ezekiel 35:7–12)

This applies to me, not because I’m ignoring God and about to attack His people, but because I’m letting the Liar make me doubt that God is here in the midst of this family issue. I’ve worried that the enemy will take possession of something that has been claimed for Jesus Christ — and forgotten that “the Lord was there.”

Yet You are always there, always with us. You do not turn the other way when Your people are distressed. You hear and answer our prayers and surround us with Yourself. There is no place I could go, even if I wanted to, from Your presence or Your involvement in my life.

That includes my family. Some of them are believers and some are not. Those who know You are assured of Your sovereign care for them. Yet those who do not know You and are unaware of Your grace and power, have not been neglected. You care for them too, even if they are unaware of it.

The people of Edom were totally godless and wanted to defeat Your people, but You would not let that happen. The unsaved people in my family are likewise under Your power. So are those who threaten them, even as we who have submitted to You are under Your care. No one can escape your sovereign plans.

Because of prayer and because of Your great love, I can rest in faith, assured that my family and those I love are never outside of the loving care and protection of Your Almighty hand.