Dear Saints,

I got some disappointing news this week from my previous boss at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary (where I also graduated).  A major accomplishment we had long labored on together will likely become nullified due to some sad news that is out of our control.  An estate plan that was to endow a professor chair will likely be rewritten and thus will write out all we had worked for for several years.  It is disappointing in a number of ways, but mainly, because the elderly man (in his 90s) we worked so closely with just got married to a younger woman who doesn’t even live with him.  It’s terribly troubling to see this frail man (who my family visited on our vacation from San Diego last year) being taken advantage of.

Something my boss said in sharing the news was quite timely:   “I didn’t dream of this [happening] … I am thankful for the Lord’s sovereign control.”

This message came to me the day after the Lord’s Day morning sermon, “God is sovereign.”  I really needed to meditate on that, as this was very disappointing for me to hear.  It helped to trust God’s sovereignty, and to see my boss trusting in it (through a greater loss for him as president of the seminary).

It had me thinking of what our brother Murphy Bivens shared with some of us after the morning sermon.  He said that remembering God is sovereign gives him great peace in life.  It really does.  How do we obey Christ’s command to take no thought for the morrow (not worry, Matthew 6:34)?  By submitting to God’s sovereignty.

We have to be careful not to simply resign to providence almost like it’s fate.  We must resolve and rest in God’s sovereignty behind and over providence.  To bow to God’s sovereignty.  To accept all things are of, to, and through Him (Romans 11:36).  Even the difficult providences.  It really is about God, and not us.  To Him be glory for ever.

What’s bothering you this week?  Submit to God’s sovereignty, and have peace in Him alone.  He is your exceeding great reward.  Release your tight grab on the false idea that you can have control over anything.  And open your arms and embrace Jesus’ rule over your life.  With whatever He brings to you for His own glory.  As we will study this coming Lord’s Day morning, may you “Listen and Bow to Jesus”.

And trust that in time, you will see His sovereign plan is best for you.  For instance, consider what Ron Walters (Sr. V.P. of Ministry Relations for Salem Communications) shares in his monthly email to pastors:

Robert Moffat, a guest preacher at the University of Glasgow, spoke one day to a nearly empty room with one student in the front row. Because of the lack of attendance, Moffat thought he had failed. But that front row student turned out to be medical missionary, David Livingstone, who answered God’s call.

I want to encourage you to look at each other in the pews that way.  We may be small, but what might God have in His sovereign plan for each of us?  He likes to work through small things, and slowly, and that is His Sovereign prerogative.

Semper Reformanda,
Pastor Grant