God Is in Control

This morning (Nov. 4, 2020), I woke up to a lot of uncertainty in the political realm. I would imagine that you, like me, would like to know who our President will be for the next four years, along with which party will be in control of the Senate and the House of Representatives. And then of course there are races at the state, county, and city levels that are undecided. This is a good time for us to be reminded of God’s sovereignty; nothing happens outside of His control. He is in control of who will fill the various seats of power. That doesn’t mean that whenever a Christian runs for office, he or she will win; it means that whatever the Lord wills to happen, will happen.

Sometimes from our perspective, what happens not only isn’t what we want; it doesn’t even seem “right.” In the book of Job, Chapter 1:1, Job is described like this: “This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” He had ten children and a multitude of material blessings. However, the Lord allowed Satan to take away everything: Job’s sons and daughters all died when the house they were in collapsed because of a mighty wind; all of his camels, oxen, and donkeys were carried off by raiders; all of his sheep were burned up; almost all of his servants were killed; and finally, Job himself was afflicted with painful sores over his entire body. Furthermore, for the most part, his friends and his wife thought he had somehow brought all of this upon himself by not being faithful. Why did the Lord allow all of this to happen to Job? We aren’t told directly, but I think that at least one reason was so that everyone, including us who read his story, could see how Job remained faithful to the Lord. At the end of the book, in Chapter 42, the Lord not only gives Job exactly as many sons and daughters as he had at the beginning of the book; He also doubles the number of sheep, camels, oxen, and donkeys that he had had at the beginning. I should add this, however: let’s not make the mistake of thinking that the Lord will also bless us in this way. Just think of the multitude of martyrs over the last almost 2000 years who remained faithful; in their case, the Lord gave them the honor of dying for Him, and their reward was waiting for them in heaven.

What does the story of Job have to do with the results of this year’s election? God is in control, regardless of whether the results turn out the way we want them to or not. Like you, I have preferences for who will end up in various offices, but I refuse to worry, regardless of the outcome. I refuse to worry about COVID-19, either. Read these words from Twila Paris’s song “God Is in Control:”

God is in control
We believe that His children will not be forsaken
God is in control
We will choose to remember and never be shaken
There is no power above or beside Him, we know
God is in control

Take comfort and strength from verses like Job 42:2, where Job says to the Lord, “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.” Here’s another: Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” No matter what happens or what we think about what happens, God is in control!