"He is in Control"

“He is in Control”

Paul tells us that God sets the boundaries for people and nations. He determines the times set for them and where and how they live. God is in charge of human life and human destiny. “He makes the nations great and then destroys them; He enlarges the nations, then leads them away” (Job 12:23). God raises up nations, He takes them down. This is reassuring. We have a God bigger than terrorism, bigger than recessions, bigger than disease or even death. God is in control, no matter how out of control things look.

God is not just in control of the big things, but the day-to-day things. “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?” (Matt. 6:26). God not only cares about the big picture, but the everyday, ordinary picture as well. That is why Jesus reminds us, to thank God for “our daily bread” (Matt. 6:11). We can take comfort when the big forces of life overwhelm us, knowing our God is bigger than they are. We can take comfort in the little things, knowing that God will provide.

The apostle tells us that in Him we live and move and have our existence. We often forget how much God does for us every day. He sustains our lives day in and day out. He does that by making the world function as it should. He does that by providing the things we need. And, as with His love, these gifts are given without condition. “For He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45). We may not realize all He does for us, but He does it anyway. We may never acknowledge all He does, but He keeps on sending sun and    rain on all of us.

We depend on God to keep the world going. We may not give Him the credit He deserves, but He sustains us anyway. “In whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?” (Job 12:10). All of us live and breathe and function: because God sustains us every day.