Read Psalm 103:19

Sovereignty.  That's one of those Christian terms we like to throw around when something tragic and out of our reach happens.  Like when a natural disaster or terrible tragedy happens: "God is sovereign and he knew what was going to happen."  But what if the situation is seemingly in our control?  We might throw out "trusting in God's sovereignty" because that's what good Christians say but do we actually act like we believe that?  I don't know about you, but I don't always act like I trust in His sovereignty.  I just try to manipulate the situation or person to produce the outcome that I think is the right outcome.  I've basically said to God, "I've got this.  I know better."  I'm not actually thinking that phrase when I act because when you actually say or think those words, that's horrifying.  Why in the world would I say or do that to the God of this universe?  But it's the same thing and sadly, I do this more often than I'd like.

Over the past 10 years, God has really taught me to trust His sovereignty.  After a few years of really growing in my trust, I got lazy and fell back into "I know best" mode.  Recently, a decision needed to be made between my husband and I that we couldn't come to agreement on.  What made it harder was that this never happens.  It was probably the second time in our 10 years that we couldn't agree.  We both felt we were trusting God on our version of the solution and went round and round in "pleading our cases."  We decided to pray for changed hearts so that we would be united in the decision.  I went into it praying "Lord, change the heart of whoever needs changed to accomplish Your will" but all along, I was thinking, "Yeah, God's gonna change John, and I can't wait to see that."  Well, two months later, my heart had a drastic change concerning our decision and the thing I was desperately pursuing a few months earlier was now something I didn't even remotely desire.  While I think my way would've been cool, I know God is sovereign and His will for me is far greater than anything I could ever imagine (Romans 8:28) and I am happily content with that decision now.  A perk of trusting God's work in my life is that I never have to second guess this decision.  I don't ever wonder if "I made the right decision" or if it was "the right thing for ME to do" but rather, I am confident and unwavering in the outcome as it was clearly God moving (Jeremiah 10:23, Philippians 2:13).  And most importantly, He gets all the glory through the process and in the outcome (Jeremiah 9:23-24).