Recently I was sitting in a car repair shop when I noticed the tiniest bug on the lobby table. Since I was annoyingly bored, I simply stared at it. The more I stared, the more I became aware of the astounding fact that God is in control—even of that tiny bug.

Scripture forthrightly tells us in Matthew’s Gospel that “not one of them [sparrows] will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father” (Matthew 10:29-31). Not one will fall outside of God’s will. Not one bug will creepily crawl apart from the will of God. In an age when many evangelicals criticize the sovereignty of God, we should be championing it.

Sovereign Means Sovereign

The sovereignty of God is widely debated, unfortunately. And the debate is not over whether He is sovereign, but to what extent He is sovereign. Let me suggest to you, friends, that if He is not sovereign in all areas of life, He is not sovereign anywhere.

From the tiniest bug to the biggest EF-5 tornado, God is absolutely sovereign over all. To be frank, it’s disheartening to even put the word absolutely in there. If He is sovereign, then it is over everything. No man can thwart God’s plan (Job 42:2); God does whatever He pleases (Psalm 115:3); He alone makes all decisions (Proverbs 16:33), and much more.

As Odd Thomas of Beautiful Euology said in their song “Sovereign,” we lamentably “reduce this attribute to foolish debate.” This isn’t supposed to be a constant debating point; rather, it’s supposed to spark awe-filled adoration for the “Godness” of God!

The Pillow of Sovereignty

Believing in the sovereignty of God is not just Calvinistic theology. It is a fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith. If I don’t believe God is sovereign, I am not believing in the God of Scripture. It is also a great comfort for the Christian, as Charles Spurgeon once famously noted:

When you go through a trial, the sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which you lay your head.

The Prince of Preachers hits the theological nail on its head. God’s sovereignty has many benefits, but one of the best is that we can find extreme comfort that He is in control–of it all! As it pertains to trials, there’s nothing more calming, nothing more precious than the sovereignty of God, knowing that He is in control. Nothing that has happened, is happening, or will happen happens outside of the sovereign will of God. Nothing. Notta. Zip.

God is Sovereign, We are Not

This surely brings up questions about free will and other things, of which all have respectable answers. However, that is a different aspect of this subject to which I can devote a later blog. My point here is that believing in God’s sovereignty helps us realize our utter helplessness in life. We believe we are in control, but friends, we are not. God is. And that’s a good thing.

If we were truly in control, we’d make a mess of everything. But thanks be to God, we are not. He is in control. For God to be God, He must be sovereign, He must be in complete control. He can surely handle it, as He created it all! And this truth of His sovereignty–His reign and control over all–will “evoke in the mind of man either humility or rebellion,” Alistair Begg once said.

His sovereign rule will either humble you or cause you to rebel all the more because you’re upset you can’t be the sovereign one. And that is what got us into this whole the-Fall-of-man mess. The natural heart of man despised the sovereignty of God.

No More Caveats, just Adoration

Again, if God is not sovereign in all spheres of life then He is not sovereign at all. We need not put caveats on the sovereignty of God just because we’re apprehensive about how sovereign He truly is. This is something that should be adored, not foolishly debated.

Our God is the God of the universe. He is transcendent. He is omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing) and omnipresent (everywhere at once). He is the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and Omega (Revelation 22:13). From everlasting to everlasting, He is God (Psalm 90:2).

Church, let us marvel.