Isaiah 45:7
I form light and create darkness;
I make well-being and create calamity;
I am the Lord, who does all these things.
God is sovereign over and through our suffering. He is working even if we cannot see or imagine how.
And while this is daunting, and even confusing, it is the best news. Because what if God wasn’t sovereign? Who then would be in control while we are suffering? Who could we turn to? What purpose would there be in all this pain? The answers, no matter what you come up with, are dire. So while we may wrestle with the reality of God’s sovereignty in suffering, we also depend on it. We depend on it even if we don’t realize it or even if we resent it. Because it is the sustaining, guiding, controlling reality that gives purpose to our suffering and grants us reason to keep living, to keep going, to keep clinging and to not give up.
You’ve heard people say, in times of difficulty or confusion, “Everything happens for a reason.” Really? Does it? That can only be true if there is a Mover (with a capital M) who has a purpose and design. As Christians, we absolutely believe everything happens for a reason because we believe that God is at work in all things and nothing sits outside of his total, loving, wise, omnipotence.
I originally wrote this post for my church, Immanuel Nashville, in our Daily Pulse email. If you want encouragement from God’s word delivered Monday thru Friday to your inbox, I encourage you to subscribe.
