For in the waiting and in the unknown, faith is tested and hearts are sanctified, set apart, made more Christ-like. And I see this. I see it and I feel it in myself and in others around me who are facing the same wait.
God is sovereign. He is screaming this truth at me over the past two weeks. Well, maybe screaming isn't the right word, but when I look at the number of times He is laying this truth about Himself before me every day, it is very obvious He means for me to get this point. At every turn, there is a reminder. Some of the loudest ones have been as I've sat having devotions with my children.
EG is doing a little Bible study on the names of God. Get this: El Elyon means God Most High, Possessor of Heaven and Earth, and speaks of His sovereignty over His creation. The study pointed us to Daniel chapter 4, where Daniel warns Nebuchadnezzar that he is going to be humbled (read: punished) for seven years, until you recognize that God Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind (v32). After that season of punshment was ended, this is what the Babylonian king had to say - and I love this:
All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back His hand or say to Him, "What have you done?" Now, I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything He does is right and all His ways are just. (Daniel 4:35, 37)
This is only one of the numerous passages God has laid before me, confirming, reminding, convincing me of His sovereignty, and that because He is El Elyon (and is infinitely other perfections), I will give Him worship, praise, and trust. I am learning, little by little, and by His grace, to take comfort in His right to ordain the events of my life as He pleases
By your grace, oh my Lord, may I fall down in worship before You every day and in every circumstance.
Journeying through my mom's illness, I have loved, LOVED reading about the names of God... they reveal so much about who He is. And, yes, I do believe there are times when He is "screaming" out a truth to us about Himself. He seems to speak mercifully in echoes so that we can hear what we need to hear over and over and over again.
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