Prayer request, and thoughts on the sovereignty of God

Please pray for our brother, Thabiti Anyabwile, his wife Kristie, their three children, their church, the people of Grand Caymen Island, and anyone else in the path of the possible category-5 hurricane that has been forecasted to strike that tiny island in the Caribbean sometime tomorrow night. Please pray that our sovereign God, who controls every storm, will mercifully spare life and property.

You can read Brother Thabiti’s meditation on God and calamity, here. The ways of God in the midst of calamity are, indeed, mysterious. Our puny minds can’t fathom these things. We can know this, however: God is Almighty; and He is in control.

That’s all I need to know.

If God is in control, then I know the devil is not in control. If God rules, then I know evil men and women don’t have the last word. And if I am in God’s hands, ultimately, I am “safe and secure from all alarms.” Our God reigns, He is sovereign, He is in control; and if, through Christ, we are resting in Him, we’ll be all right.

Psalm 47

1Clap your hands, all peoples!
Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
2For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared,
a great king over all the earth.
3He subdued peoples under us,
and nations under our feet.
4He chose our heritage for us,
the pride of Jacob whom he loves.

5God has gone up with a shout,
the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.
6Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
7For God is the King of all the earth;
sing praises with a psalm!
8God reigns over the nations;
God sits on his holy throne.
9The princes of the peoples gather
as the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God;
he is highly exalted!

Pray that people, everywhere, would come to acknowledge and rest in this truth. And pray for the safety of our brother, Thabiti, and his family.

A godly way to complain

What should one do when you have seemingly legitimate reasons to complain? Is there a godly way to complain?

I don’t have a complete answer—and I don’t have time to flesh this out fully—but here is a thought that came to me the other day: If I must complain, I should complain to God. Consider these verses from the psalmist, David:

“With my voice I cry out to the LORD; with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD. I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him” (Psalm 142:1-2).

“Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice” (Psalm 55:17).

This, to me, seems the safest way to complain. If my complaint is legitimate, God knows and has the power to do something about my situation. If my complaint is illegitimate, God knows that too, and he will let me know about it. But, perhaps best of all, if “I pour out my complaint before him”, the less likely I will be to pour out something before others that will be inappropriately negative, and the easier it will be to project a positive attitude which will more clearly reflect the Savior.

If something or someone is bothering you to the point that you are tempted to complain, tell God about it—“pour out [your] complaint before him”. David said, “He hears my voice”. We must remember that the heavenly Father hears his children. He’s concerned; he cares. And God doesn’t have office hours; we can come to him at any time: “evening and morning and at noon”. He’s never too busy. His door is always open.

If we will take our complaints directly to God, we will see that our problems aren’t so big after all when seen in the light of his awesome greatness.

I’m still here!

I haven’t forgotten about the readers of this blog. I am just very busy right now. If God brings it to mind, would you, kindly, pray for me? I need much wisdom, patience…and sleep (notice what time I’m posting this). Thanks so much. If I have some time in the next few days, I will try to write some more.