Recently our worship service was opened with a call to worship that acknowledged that God is Sovereign, that He reigns above all and above everyone else and that He is actually in control. From that thought we were called to worship Him, submit our hearts to Him and acknowledge His goodness and care for us, His people. We can find numerous scriptures that declare that He is sovereign, like Psalm 22:28 “For the kingdom is the Lord’s and he rules over the nations.” As Christians, this is a basic belief or doctrine.
To come into God’s presence or to worship Him requires us to express faith. We can intellectually believe that God is Sovereign or just assume that He is because of our religious training and upbringing, but to worship Him as such requires a faith and trust. What about when what we see around us at the moment doesn’t look like God is in control. Maybe we see people in distress because of inflation, economic uncertainty and increasing interest rates. Or our attention is drawn to the many natural disasters like forest fires, flooding and earthquakes that make it into the news on almost a daily basis. Beyond that, the very degrading and inhuman ways people treat one another. In the middle of all of these things, can we truly believe God reigns, and then worship Him.
It is one thing to make the declarations that God is sovereign when everything is out there and not personally affecting us. Or when all is going well, and life seems to be just as we would hope and maybe what we prayed for. But what about when my experience seems to cast doubts on the fact that God is Sovereign. When my own life is in an upheaval, when the uncertainty is close to home, when health fails, and my prayers seem to go unanswered. Is my faith declaration still the same, can I still acknowledge that He rules in the affairs of humanity? Am I good with Him being in control, when I don’t like the outcomes?
Can I humbly worship, privately or in public corporate worship, trusting a God who has declared that He is sovereign. That is what God’s recorded word calls us to do and that’s what leaders throughout Christian history have called God’s people to do.
We look for a day when all things will be made new and all pain will be removed and injustices will be corrected, when faith will be made sight. But until then, in faith we declare that what God has said about Himself is true and we acknowledge that we are good with that. This is worship. I encourage you to worship with God’s people this coming Sunday.
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Fred Erb serves as pastor at Listowel Community Church.
