Lesson 16: God's Sovereignty for Suffering’s Results

Revelation 4:8-10 “And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’ And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne…”

So far, we have seen that the sovereignty of God answers the questions of, "Where suffering comes from," "Do Christians have to suffer," and even, "Why suffering occurs." Those, however, are not the only questions we get answered when we know that God is Sovereign. We will also learn the answer to the question, "What good can come from suffering?" This is revealed to us in another amazing aspect that the Bible talks about: God's sovereignty includes the fact that God is above and beyond time.

In these verses, one of the things that makes God so wise is that He not only exists forever and ever, but He is eternal which means He is above and beyond time. Because God is above and beyond time, He has an eternal perspective on all things at all times simultaneously. You may not think this important but if you follow the logical train of thought here, it will revolutionize your life! Since God alone sees all things, this means He also knows all things. Therefore, He is not just sovereign, He is infinitely sovereign! If we truly understand that God is sovereign, it reveals several things we have never considered.


The first thing knowing that God is Sovereign is going to reveal is that there is no such thing as an accident. Even the events that seem accidental are really ordered by Him.

Proverbs 16:9,33 - "The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps…The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD."

Here we read that even though we personally live out each day and make our individual plans, behind it all, God, in His infinite wisdom, is directing our steps. Did you know that God is so sovereign that nothing ever catches Him off guard? In fact, He never says "Oops" and He never has to say "Sorry! I did not see that one coming." Therefore, nothing happens by accident. This is great news because God is sovereign and there are no accidents. This means there must be some sort of wise purpose behind all things, even our difficulties. Instead of being comforted by this truth, we often label our difficulties as being bad luck or an unexpected encounter with no rhyme or reason. This not only denies God's sovereignty, it also causes a lot of unnecessary pain. Therefore, since we seem to have such a hard time seeing this, we will look at just a few of the sovereign reasons that God allows difficulties to occur.

* Remember a time when you had an unexpected event that changed your day – how do you now see Jesus in this event?