God's Sovereignty and Faith

Lately I’ve been struggling with concerns over my children.  As a parent, as with most parents, I want the best for my children; but when they suffer from some illness or other malady my heart understandably becomes concerned.  Within this concern are medical practitioner appointments, various treatments, and much prayer.  All this is done with a view toward health being restored—but what happens when health isn’t restored?  Do I shake my fist at God, blaming Him for not accommodating my heartfelt requests?  Do I stop praying or practicing my other spiritual disciplines?  In all honesty, sometimes I am tempted to chuck the whole faith thing when I see my children suffering.

Thankfully, though, I never fully succumb to such an extreme; I do, however, vent my frustration to my wife (thank God she’s an understanding sort).  Even so, I admit that within these circumstances I sometimes struggle with grasping the sovereignty of God. But I think this struggle is natural and to be expected. In fact, I think this struggle is part of our personal journey of deepening our trust in God; in essence, it’s a spiritual workout for our faith muscles. 

Sovereignty “means principal, chief, supreme. It speaks first of position (God is the chief Being in the universe), then of power (God is supreme in power in the universe)” (Charles Ryrie, Basic Theology, p. 48).  If we truly believe that God is sovereign, we’re saying that we believe He is all-powerful, what we would term as “omnipotent.”  Being omnipotent means God could change the situation, but for whatever reason, He doesn’t. 

Now we have another problem, and that is why aren’t the circumstances changing to our desires?  This is where trust comes in with the question of:  Do we believe that God knows what’s best for me and for my children?  Scripture says that He does (see Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:37, and Philippians 4:13).  A.W. Tozer wrote, “God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind…all being and every being” (The Knowledge of the Holy, pp. 62-62). Now our challenge is do we believe this? 

Most of us, if we’re honest, will have to say, “I do believe this, mostly.”   Being this honest with each other and with God opens the door for God, via the Holy Spirit, to bring us along with our doubt and with our faith. 

We see ample examples of this in the Psalms where the writer struggles with doubts but eventually surrenders to God.  Most, if not all of these psalms, can be viewed as prayers, a hurting heart crying out in all the rawness of humanity to an omnipotent God.  And God’s reaction isn’t rejection, it is a loving enveloping as a father with his children after they fall and scrape their knees.  God knows this stuff hurts, but He will still comfort us and our children as we continue in our struggle of deepening our faith.  A major key in all of this is internally confronting our unbelief and confessing it to our Heavenly Father in heartfelt prayer.  It is in this openness that we will begin seeing the fruit of joy and peace being cultivated as we persevere and help others to persevere as well.