So be it! Praise the Lord!

How much do we really believe in a sovereign God?  Is He sovereign when things go “just right” for us?  Is He still sovereign when they don’t?  This is the great crisis of faith and mind when we meet with the difficult realities of life.  We are so surrounded today by a faith doctrine that God intends only good, implied “our idea of good”, for us that we wonder if He is true when “our of idea of good” isn’t realized.

We had a young couple visit our church.  They were quiet and sat in the back.  It wasn’t even a Baptist church, go figure.  Only Baptists may understand that one.  They were not very communicative when they went through the “receiving line” after church.  Yes, I am rather old fashioned and still stand at the back and greet everyone and visit briefly with all on their way out of church.  Then during fellowship time this couple was also less than socially interactive, even when approached by others.  Later I visited them in their home.  Yes, I believe pastors should still do this.  Finally they poured out their story.

They had both gone to a “name it claim it, God wants what you want” Bible college. They had both had hopes of future ministry.  Suddenly, God didn’t seem to want what they wanted and He held that course for some time.  They came to two possible conclusions, both wrong.  First, they were sinners so perverse that they could not please God (which if it had stopped there would be true) even though they trusted in His Son for salvation.  The truth is, in Christ we are pleasing to God by relationship with His Son.  So, they had the first point wrong.  Their second conclusion was that God was a lie.  They opted for the second conclusion and went on their unhappy way. 

The false doctrine they had been taught was that they were sovereign, not God.  Too many of us come to that conclusion at different points in our life.  We are frustrated that God does not answer our prayers according to our desires.  Since He is all powerful He can certainly do what we ask.  That is true, but He is also all wise and knows what is best for us at all times and, as all Goodness, He will only do what is good.  On our part must be faith in a sovereign God or unhappiness as that young couple chose to live and suffer in. 

There is a great song in Revelation.  It is really short and we can all memorize it without any difficulty.  It has only two words.  “Amen! Alleluia!”  That is literally, “So be it.  Praise the Lord!”  If you know Christ as Savior then the Good God is truly watching over you for good.  Sing a song of confident praise to Him today.  “Amen!  Alleluia!”  

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