Real Hope: Paradoxes of GodSample

God’s Sovereignty

If we live long enough, we’ll find that life doesn’t always go to plan. Sometimes it’s just plain horrible and confusing. That’s because life isn’t linear, and I’m not sure why we subscribe to the narrative that it should be. The Christian journey feels like a paradox. Love and justice; forgiveness and judgment; provision and sacrifice. How do we hold both truths and what can it look like in the wonder and daily grind of our lives?

If God is loving, then why did He not heal my loved one?

If God is my provider, why do I need to do anything?

If God is all-knowing, why should I pray to Him?

Maybe it’s God’s sovereignty that we question because even though God is all-knowing, He desires a relationship with us; God provides, and we are responsible for our actions. God loves us, and we live in a broken world where suffering exists. Sometimes it’s simpler for us to think that one truth means the other must not be true, because imagine if we had to try to hold all possibilities at once! But we are not the one who is all-knowing. Our knowledge and wisdom are limited to our flesh, time, space, logic, fear, doubt… (insert human experience).

If God is sovereign, then all these paradoxes can hold true all at once, because we cannot fathom the mind of God. One truth does not make the other one false.

As you go about your day and whatever may come into your path, does God’s ultimate sovereignty hold true?

Written by LINDA LOU