Job said, “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The LORD gave me what I had, and the LORD has taken it away. Praise the name of the LORD!” Job 1:21
Heavenly Father, your sovereignty is a mystery to us—generating hands raised in adoration, hands grasping for control, and hands wringing with confusion. When we finally believe our salvation is all by grace, the fear of death gives way to the certainty of heaven, and the burden of performancism topples under the joys of our justification. It’s a great relief to know Jesus is our perfect righteousness, not our self-salvation coach.
However, things get emotionally and spiritually complicated when your absolute sovereignty collides with the horrors of war, chronic pain, suffering children, multiple myeloma, and multiple disappointments. This was Job’s story, and you were his God… and ours.
So here we are again Father, not asking you to change, but trusting you for more grace: Supernatural grace to feel your peace when we don’t see your face. Super-abundant grace to affirm you are a good, good Father, when your ways contradict our sensibilities. Sufficient grace to boast in our weaknesses, and not just bemoan them. (2 Cor. 12:9).
You do whatever pleases you, Father, and we are grateful it over-pleased you to give Jesus to us, and for us. Ultimately, whatever pleases you will enthrall, hyper-gladden, and over-please us. By your Holy Spirit bring a bit of our perfect future into our messy present. Help us help each other in this journey of wrestling with and resting in your Fatherly sovereignty. So Very Amen.