Lesson 20: God's Sovereignty Teaches Us That God is God and We Are Not

Matthew 11:1-6 "When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities. Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me."

John the Baptist was having a problem with the way things were turning out in his life. He just came off a fruitful ministry in the desert preparing the way of the Lord, but now here he was in prison. John assumed that Jesus would usher in His Kingdom immediately, but He did not. Because life was not meeting John's expectations, he began to doubt God's plan, and sent his disciples to check things out. If we are honest with ourselves, we do the same thing in our relationship with Jesus. We also assume we know what is best for us. We think we know better than God. But we cannot govern our own lives, let alone the universe. Besides, God has a better way. He asks us to trust Him. We can either trust that He knows what He is doing, or we can doubt and start demanding that life should go our way. However, once we start demanding that life goes our way, we set ourselves up for some serious heartache.


So out of mercy, God orchestrates a few difficulties to come our way to show us we are not God and cannot control everything. Over time, we start to realize that maybe we do not know the best for us after all. God is not being a tyrant! Rather, He is teaching us a very valuable lesson in life. He knows what is best for us. We can either doubt His love and care for us when life goes out of control and get mad at God, or we can trust in His wisdom even when life make no sense to us at all.

Jesus sent His disciples to the other side of the Sea of Galilee after He had fed the crowd, and He went to a place where He could be alone to pray. Meanwhile, a storm came up, and even these men who had been making their livelihood fishing on this very sea were afraid for their lives. Then, to make their fear even greater, they saw someone walking toward them on the water! Can you imagine what they thought? Jesus had forsaken them, and now they faced a ghost all alone on the sea! But Jesus called to them, calmed them down, and the moment He stepped into the boat the storm stopped!

The disciples discovered God was in full control all the time! When all was said and done, God really did know what was best for everyone. This is the same choice that we all have in all our everyday trials. We can either doubt God and begin to question His goodness when our lives are upset, or we can trust God no matter what happens, and sit back, relax and enjoy the ride of our life even in the midst of the worst of storms - all because God is Sovereign.

* How have you experienced God’s Sovereignty through trials?