Plead, Submit and Rest assured

God is sovereign. We find so many in the bible addressing the Lord GOD as Sovereign LORD. Dictionary defines sovereign as ‘supreme ruler’ or ‘a person with supreme power or authority’. Our Lord is the only true sovereign in this world. Paul writes about God to Timothy in I Timothy 6:16 calling Him “the blessed and only Ruler, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords”. The dictionary also has another set of meanings for Sovereign -- ‘preeminent’, ‘indisputable’, ‘self-governing’ and ‘independent’. God alone qualifies by these criteria. He says in Exodus 33:19, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” He is absolutely free to act as he will. He is not bound by any rules. Very often we do not realize this when we address God as ‘Sovereign’ in our prayers; 'sovereign' has just become a meaningless adjective in front of his name. If he is sovereign, we cannot demand from Him as we demand from our peers. If he is indeed sovereign, we cannot command Him as we command our servants. The only way we can approach this most High God to act on our behalf is to plead for his grace. The next time we go down on our knees or look up in prayer, shall we PLEAD for his mercy.

God is absolutely sovereign. Since he is indisputable, we cannot question his fairness or wisdom in how he deals with us. Paul asks the Romans, “Who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ”(Rom 9:20) Earthly sovereigns may be arbitrarily unjust, but our Sovereign Lord in his arbitrary mercy has decided "I will call them 'my people' who are not my people ; and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one." (Rom 9:25) Knowing that he is not just all-powerful but also all-knowing and loving, we need to submit to whatever is his plan for us. Paul continues, “Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?” (Rom 9:21) In this fallen world, there will be poverty and prosperity, health and sickness, literacy and ignorance, honor and rejection, all side by side. Whatever is the situation that we are in, we are not to question Him but remind ourselves, that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28). In the limited light that we have, we will not see the greater good that awaits us. Today’s ‘seed faith’ theology may say that we are to visualize what the solution to our problem will be, in all its details and pray for that solution. I would think that any solution which we can think of cannot be the best, given our limited knowledge. After we have pleaded for a solution to our problem, it is in our interest to leave the actual solution to His infinite wisdom. We will do well to SUBMIT to his will.

Finally, God is not just sovereign over us; he is sovereign over all circumstances. We are safe in His hands. Too often people are afraid not just for this life, but even if their salvation and eternal destiny is safe. Paul asserts in his letter to the Romans, “Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:35, 37-39) What is his confidence? We find it in verse 34 -- Christ Jesus is at the right hand of God. Christ Jesus is on the Throne and He reigns supreme. He reiterates in 2 Timothy 1:12, “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.” We can certainly REST ASSURED in his SOVEREIGN Love.

If at some point in life, we have truly committed our life to God and have accepted his gift of Salvation, we can rest assured that he will keep us safe from falling. Even when we falter on the way, fall to temptations and drift away from him, His gentle love continues to tug us back towards him. When we stray away, we get to face the consequences, lose precious years and miss several blessings he had planned for us, but He does not let the devil steal us. He will chastise us and do all it takes to bring us back to him. Dr. Ravi Zacharias recounts the fascinating experience of one of his translators of yesteryears, Hien Pham. A young teen in the early seventies, he had been his interpreter in Vietnam when he ministered to the American troops. From those early promising days, so much went wrong in his life but God was faithful to bring him back to Himself. What a great assuring Rest we have in Him.

"When Vietnam fell, Hien was imprisoned and indoctrinated, and had decided to abandon his Christian faith. Then he came across a page from Romans 8 that had been used as toilet paper while cleaning the prison latrines. After finding the Scripture, Hien asked the commander if he could clean the latrines regularly, because he discovered that some official was using a Bible as toilet paper. Each day Hien picked up a portion of Scripture, cleaned it off, and added it to his collection of nightly reading.The day came when, through an equally providential set of circumstances, Hien was released from prison. He promptly began to make plans to leave the country and to construct a boat for the escape of him and fifty-three others. All was going according to plan until days before their departure. Four Vietcong knocked on Hien's door and said they had heard of his escape. He denied it and they left. Hien felt relieved, but at the same time disappointed with himself. He made a promise to God—fervently hoping that God would not take him up on it—that if the Vietcong returned, he would tell them the truth. He was thoroughly shaken when only a few hours before they were to set sail, the four men returned. When questioned again, Hien confessed the truth. To Hien's astonishment, the men leaned forward and in hushed tones, asked if they could go with him!In an utterly incredible escape plan, all fifty-eight of them found themselves on the high seas, suddenly engulfed by a violent storm. Today, he lives to say that if it were not for the sailing ability of those four Vietcong, they would not have made it. They arrived safely in Thailand, and years later Hien arrived on American soil where today he is a businessman." What providence we find in His sovereignty!

Jesus is our greatest example. When faced with the prospect of losing his Father’s presence and his soul was overwhelmed with sorrow, he pleaded, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” Having pleaded, he submitted to his Father’s will and prayed, “Yet not as I will, but as you will.” He was then prepared to face what he feared and rested assured in his Father’s divine providence. Let us follow our saviour's footsteps.

He's very fond of me

When asked who is the most important person on earth, most might answer that it is the President of the United States of America. Do we not call the occupant of that chair as "The Most Powerful Man on Earth"? Christians could possibly point to some Minister who is seen to be powerfully anointed of God, as most important. We find from the Bible that 'the greatest prophet of all times' Samuel was no exception either. When asked to anoint a son of Jesse as the 2nd King of Israel, he considered the appearance and height of Eliab the eldest and thought he was the Lord's anointed to be Israel's King. He had to be reminded by God, "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart". Even Jesse who had been instructed by Samuel to assemble his sons and join him for a sacrifice to the Lord, had made the same mistake. While he called his first 7 sons for the worship, he did not consider his youngest son important and had left him to continue to tend the sheep. How radically opposite are our outlook comapred to our Lord's. Here is David, the youngest and the despised in the family away tending sheep and God has Samuel waiting to receive him so he could anoint him as King.

Very few people in this world look at it in the same way that the Lord looks. There are very few like Teresa who said, "I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds I feel I am nursing the Lord himself". Teresa could see God the Creator in every neglected person who had been created in the image of God. She could do so because she had come to share the Lord's burden for the lowly

Let's look at some of the civilian laws that God had given the nation of Israel through Moses, that will help us get a ringside view of his concern for the poor.

• 'When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien." (Lev 19:9,10)


• At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. . . Every creditor shall cancel the loan he has made to his fellow Israelite. He shall not require payment from his fellow Israelite or brother . . . you must cancel any debt your brother owes you. (Deu 15:1-3)


• Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns. Pay him his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and is counting on it. (Deu 24:14,15)

Look at the Lord's heart. It can clearly be seen in 2 verses in Deuteronomy 15. Ver 4 says "There should be no poor among you." If the rich would take care of the poor and needy, realizing that God's riches are not meant for their individual use but have been given them in their capacity as Stewards, there would not be any poor. The world wants to make the poor still poorer through their debts and Credit cards but God had wanted the old nation of Israel to cancel the poor's debts. Ver 11 says "There will always be poor people in the land." As long as we are on this fallen earth, there will be poverty and prosperity side by side. It is the Lord's will that his Stewards will administer the riches in their hands generously and alleviate poverty. He told the Israelites that they are to deal this way with the poor because He is the Lord their God (Lev 19:10) -- God of both the poor and the rich. How often we forget this and live as if God is on the side of the rich? What a different place this world will be, if we will begin to see like God sees?

We considered how our 'outward look' at the world should be. Let us now see how our 'inward look' - the way we look at ourselves - should be. What should our identity be -- our profession, our prosperity or our family connections? Philip Yancey in his book 'What's So Amazing About Grace' quotes Brennan Manning "If John were to be asked, 'What is your primary identity in life ?' he would not reply, 'I am a disciple, an apostle, an evangelist, an author of one of the four Gospels,' but rather, 'I am the one Jesus loves.'" Brennan Manning also tells the story of an Irish priest who, on a walking-tour of a rural parish, sees an old peasant kneeling by the side of the road, praying. Impressed, the priest says to the man, "You must be very close to God." The peasant looks up from his prayers, thinks a moment, and then smiles, "Yes, He's very fond of me".

Irrespective of who we are - rich or poor, educated or illiterate, high or low - will our identity be that "I am the one Jesus loves"? That will keep us from pride as well as from self-pity. Some of us could need the humbling that this identity brings while others could need the encouragement. Again, for some of us there could be times of success when we need to be brought to our senses that there is nothing we can do to earn God's love, and other times of failure when we need this encouragement that there is nothing we can do to make us lose his love. Jesus loves me because he created me in His own image. How comforting this is !