Biblical Evidence: Scriptures About God’s Sovereign Rule (Sovereign Rule, Part 8)

God reigns supreme over the details of our lives. Psalm 103:19 says, “The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.”

No one outranks God. He rules independent of the control of any other being, even Satan. Absolutely no one has more control over the events of this world—over the events in your life and its best and worst circumstances—than God.

“God has put everything under the control of Christ. He has made Christ the head of everything for the good of the church” (Ephesians 1:22, GW).

God is the ultimate authority over all the things that can cause us hardship and suffering. The scriptures below are evidence of this.

God is Sovereign Over…

Below you will find scriptures demonstrating that:

• God is Sovereign Over People
  • God is Sovereign Over What People Do, Even “Accidentally”
  • God is Sovereign Over People’s Good Deeds
  • God is Sovereign Over People’s Wicked Actions
• God is Sovereign Over Satan and Demons
• God Is Sovereign Over Animals and Plants
• God is Sovereign Over the Weather
• God is Sovereign Over Man-Made Objects, Tools, and Machines
• God is Sovereign Over Our Physical Suffering and Afflictions
• God Is Sovereign Over Our Emotional and Spiritual Afflictions
• God is Sovereign Over Life and Death
• God is Sovereign Over Prosperity and Poverty

* Click each line above to go directly to that section of scripture

God is Sovereign Over People

God reigns supremely over everything people do, whether their actions are good, or bad, or even by “accident.”

God is Sovereign Over What People Do, Even “Accidentally”

Even though we humans have our own mind and will, God has ultimate authority over all we do—even what we do by “accident.” [1]

• Proverbs 16:9 – “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.”
• Proverbs 19:21 – “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.”
• Proverbs 20:24 – “A man’s steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand his own way?”
• Proverbs 21:1 – “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.”
• Daniel 5:23 – Daniel to king Belshazzar: “But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways.”
• Regarding accidents:
  • Numbers 35:9-10 –  “Then the LORD said to Moses: “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, select some towns to be your cities of refuge, to which a person who has killed someone accidentally may flee.’”
  • Exodus 21:12–13 – “Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death. However, if he does not do it intentionally, but God lets it happen, he is to flee to a place I will designate” (emphasis added).

God is Sovereign Over People’s Good Deeds

• Philippians 2:13 – “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”
• 2 Corinthians 8:16 – “I thank God, who put into the heart of Titus the same concern I have for you.”
• Acts 16:14 – “One of those listening was a woman named Lydia…The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.”
• 1 Corinthians 15:10 – [Paul speaking] “I worked harder than all [the other apostles]—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”
• Ezra 1:1 – “The LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing.”  [This was a decree allowing Jewish exiles to return home and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.]

God is Sovereign Over People’s Wicked Actions

God never sins and He never tempts anyone to sin (see James 1:13). He never puts the idea of evil into anyone’s heart. As we saw in this article, man is a responsible moral agent though he is also divinely controlled.

God steers the sin already in people’s hearts “so that sinners unwittingly fulfill his plans and not merely their own. He accomplishes this by infinite wisdom beyond our grasp.” [1]

God does this without compromising His holy, righteous, loving nature. He steers people’s sinful actions and makes sure they suit His higher purpose and plan.

• Proverbs 16:4 – “The LORD works out everything for his own ends—even the wicked for a day of disaster.”
• Ezekiel 32:32 – “’I had him [Pharoah] spread terror in the land of the living…’ declares the Sovereign LORD.”
• Acts 4:28 – “They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.” [Regarding the men who had Jesus murdered — and the fact that they did what God’s power and will had decided beforehand.]
• Genesis 45:4-5,7-8 – [Joseph, speaking to his brothers about them having sold him into slavery.] “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. … But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God.”
• 1 Samuel 2:25 – [Regarding the warnings of Eli, the high priest, to his sons that they stop sinning] “His sons, however, did not listen to their father’s rebuke, for it was the LORD’s will to put them to death.”
• 2 Chronicles 25:20 – [Regarding a warning to Amaziah, king of Judah, not to enter battle] “Amaziah, however, would not listen, for God so worked that he might hand them over to Jehoash [the enemy king], because they sought the gods of Edom.”
• Judges 14:3-4 – [Samson parents plead with him not to marry an idol-worshiping Philistine] “’Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?’ But Samson said to his father, ‘Get her for me. She’s the right one for me.’ (His parents did not know that this was from the LORD, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.)”
• Exodus 14:17 – [God tells Moses that He is going to drown the Egyptians in the Red Sea] “I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after [the Israelites]. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen.”
• Psalm 105:25 – “He turned [the Egyptians’] heart to hate His people” (NASV).
• Deuteronomy 2:30 – “But Sihon king of Heshbon refused to let us pass through. For the LORD your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate in order to give him into your hands.”
• Joshua 11:20 – [Regarding the Canaanites, whose land Israel conquered] “For it was the LORD himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the LORD had commanded Moses.”
• Isaiah 10:5–7,15 – [God is sending the Assyrians to punish his people Israel, who have sinned so badly that in this passage they’re called a “godless nation.” The Assyrians are unaware of being used as God’s tools]
  • “Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger, in whose hand is the club of my wrath! I send him against a godless nation, I dispatch him against a people who anger me, to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets. But this is not what he [the Assyrian king] intends, this is not what he has in mind; his purpose is to destroy, to put an end to many nations… Does the ax raise itself above him who swings it, or the saw boast against him who uses it? As if a rod were to wield him who lifts it up, or a club brandish him who is not wood!”

For more scriptures, including examples of God deluding evil people, confusing their thinking, and frustrating their rebellious plans, see Appendix A in When God Weeps.

God is Sovereign Over Satan and Demons

• Colossians 2:10 – “[Christ] is the authority over all authorities, and the supreme power over all powers” (Phillips).
• Ephesians 1:22 – “God has put everything under the control of Christ. He has made Christ the head of everything for the good of the church” (GW).
• Colossians 1:17 – “And He [Christ] Himself existed and is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. [His is the controlling, cohesive force of the universe]” (AMP).
• Regarding Satan needing permission to act:
  • Luke 22:31 – “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.”
  • Job 2:6 – “’Very well,’ the Lord told Satan, ‘he is in your power; only spare his life’” (HCSB).
• Matthew 8:31-32 – “The demons begged Jesus, ‘If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.’ He said to them, ‘Go!’ So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water.” [The demons needed Jesus’ permission.]
• Matthew 4:10–11 – “Jesus said to [Lucifer], ‘Away from me, Satan!…’ Then the devil left him.”
• Mark 1:23-27 – “Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, ‘What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!’ ‘Be quiet!’ said Jesus sternly. ‘Come out of him!’ The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, ”What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.’”
• 1 Chronicles 21:1 – [God punished Israel by allowing Satan to plant a sinful thought in David’s mind.] “Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.”
  • Compare 2 Samuel 24:1: “Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, ‘Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.’”

God Is Sovereign Over Animals and Plants

• Matthew 10:29 – “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.”
• 1 Kings 17:2-4 – “Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: ‘Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine…I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.’”
• Numbers 22:28 – “Then the LORD opened the donkey’s mouth, and she said to Balaam, ‘What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?’”
• Jonah 1:17; 2:10 – “But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah…And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.”
• Jonah 4:6 – “Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort.”
• Jonah 4:7 – But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered.
• 2 Kings 17:25 – “When they first lived there, they did not worship the LORD; so he sent lions among them and they killed some of the people.”
• Leviticus 14:34–35 – [God to Israel] “When you enter the land of Canaan…and I put a spreading mildew in a house in that land, the owner of the house must go and tell the priest.”
• 2 Samuel 24:15 – “So the LORD sent a plague on Israel…and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died.”
• Exodus 8:1-2 – “This is what the LORD says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs.’” [God is speaking to Pharaoh through Moses.]
• Exodus 8:21, 24 – [God to Pharaoh] “’If you do not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies on you…’And the LORD did this.”
• Exodus 10:13 – “The LORD made an east wind blow across the land…By morning the wind had brought the locusts.”

God is Sovereign Over the Weather

• Psalm 147:15-18 – “He sends his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes. He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can withstand his icy blast? He sends his word and melts them; he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.”
• Psalms 148:8 – “…lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding.”
• Genesis 6:17 – “I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.”
• Genesis 19:24 – “Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah.”
• Exodus 9:23 – “When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt…The only place it did not hail was the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were.”
• Exodus 14:21, 27 – “All that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided…At daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the LORD swept them into the sea.”
• Amos 4:7-10 – [God addressing Israel] “I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another…Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, I struck them with blight and mildew…yet you have not returned to me,” declares the LORD.
• Jonah 1:4 – “Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.”
• Mark 4:37–41 – “A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped…He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm…[His disciples] were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!’”

God is Sovereign Over Man-Made Objects, Tools, and Machines

• Exodus 14:25 – “He made the wheels of their chariots come off so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, ‘Let’s get away from the Israelites! The LORD is fighting for them against Egypt.’”
• 2 Kings 6:5–6 – “As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axhead fell into the water. ‘Oh, my lord,’ he cried out, ‘it was borrowed!’ The man of God asked, ‘Where did it fall?’ When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float.”
• Proverbs 16:33 – “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.”
• Daniel 3:27-28 – [Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are thrown into a fiery furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar for refusing to bow down to an idol] “The satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar said, ‘Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants!’”

God is Sovereign Over Our Physical Suffering and Afflictions

• Psalm 103:2-3 – “Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.”
• Mark 1:32–34 – “That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick…The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases…”
• Exodus 4:11 – “The LORD said to him, ‘Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?’”
• 2 Kings 15:5 – “The LORD afflicted the king with leprosy until the day he died.”
• Psalms 38:3 – [David speaking to God] “Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; my bones have no soundness because of my sin.”
• Deuteronomy 28:27, 35 – [God is promising sickness if Israel disobeys] “The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured…The LORD will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.”
• Deuteronomy 28:58-59 – [God warns Israel] “If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name—the LORD your God—the LORD will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses.”
• Exodus 15:26 – [But if Israel heeds the warning and obeys God] “If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.”

Of course, Satan causes illness also (see Job 2:7 and Luke 13:16). But when Satan afflicts with illness, he has no idea that he is accomplishing God’s eternal purpose and achieving His ends.

God Is Sovereign Over Our Emotional and Spiritual Afflictions

• Psalm 30:11–12 – “You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.”
• Psalms 4:7–8 – “You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.”
• Lamentations 3:32 – “…he [the Lord] brings grief.”
• Psalms 6:3–4 – “My soul is in anguish. How long, O LORD, how long? Turn, O LORD, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love.”
• Psalms 13:1-3 – “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?…Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes.”
• Deuteronomy 28:28, 34 – [What God says He will do to Israel if they disobey] “The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind…The sights you see will drive you mad.”
• Deuteronomy 28:65-67 – [Israel is warned again] “The LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day…In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening, ‘If only it were morning!’—because of the terror that will fill your hearts…”
• Leviticus 26:36 – “I will make their hearts so fearful in the lands of their enemies that the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall, even though no one is pursuing them.”
• 1 Samuel 16:14 – “Now the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him.”
• Proverbs 21:1 – “The king’s heart [mind, will, emotions] is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.”
• Daniel 4:31, 16, 33–34 – “A voice came from heaven, ‘This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar: ‘Let his mind be changed from that of a man and let him be given the mind of an animal…’’ Immediately what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people and ate grass like cattle. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird. ‘At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored.’”
• 2 Corinthians 12:7 – “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.”

God is Sovereign Over Life and Death

• Deuteronomy 32:39 – “See now that I am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.”
• 1 Samuel 2:6 – “The Lord brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up.”
• Before we were born, God knew every detail of our lives, from our first to last breath. If this is the case, then he knows the exact time of our first and last breath. He is sovereign over the circumstances surrounding them as well.
  • Psalm 139:16 – “Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them” (AMPC).

God is Sovereign Over Prosperity and Poverty

• 1 Samuel 2:7 – “The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts.”
• Isaiah 45:7 – “I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.”
• Deuteronomy 8:18 – “the Lord your God gives you the power to gain wealth” (HCSB).
• Lamentations 3:38 – “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?”
• Ecclesiastes 5:19 – “Also, every man to whom God has given riches and possessions, and the power to enjoy them and to accept his appointed lot and to rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God [to him]” (AMPC, emphasis added).
• Ecclesiastes 6:2 – “God gives some people wealth, possessions and honor, so that they lack nothing their hearts desire, but God does not grant them the ability to enjoy them, and strangers enjoy them instead” (emphasis added).

In Closing…

No Trial Reaches Us Without God’s Permission

• Amos 3:6 – When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?
• Lamentations 3:38 – “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?”
• Ecclesiastes 7:13-14 – “Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked? When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider; God has made the one as well as the other.”
• Isaiah 45:7 – “I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.”
• Daniel 4:34-35 – “His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What hast Thou done?’“ (NASB, emphasis added).
• 1 Samuel 2:6–7 – The LORD brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up. The LORD sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts.”
• 1 Thessalonians 3:3 – “no one [of you] should be disturbed…by these afflictions and difficulties…. For you yourselves know that this is…our appointed lot” (AMPC).
• Ephesians 1:11 – “[God] works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.”

No trial reaches us without God’s appointment and specific permission. God governs hands-on. He runs the world manually, screening our trials and with great specificity allowing only the ones that will accomplish His good plan.

As Steve Estes writes in When God Weeps, “God may not initiate all our trials—but by the time they reach us, they are his will for us.” [2]

Ephesians 1:11 says that God “works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.” And the purpose of God’s will for us is good!

s “I’ll see to it that everything works out for the best” (Isaiah 54:17, MSG).

s “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” (Romans 8:28, NLT).

s “‘I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11).

s “The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations” (Psalm 33:10-11).

God Permits Our Trials for Our Eternal Good

God sees our full, eternal potential and appoints the experiences necessary to cause us to reach it. Sometimes those experiences are pleasant…and sometimes they’re not. But one day, looking back from heaven, through the end-of-time lens of a holy God, we will see all the good that came from our afflictions, and we will thank Him for every discomfort we endured.

When we understand the loving purposes behind our afflictions, we say with the psalmist:

“I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are right and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me” (Psalm 119:75).

When life’s circumstances bring sorrow, hardship, and suffering we can reply like Joseph did to his brothers who sold him into slavery:

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good…”
Genesis 50:20

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Tweetables

• God is the ultimate authority over all the things that cause us hardship and suffering, as these scriptures prove: http://bit.ly/2BWHNwp  Tweet
• “God has put everything under the control of Christ. He has made Christ the head of everything for the good of the church.” – Ephesians Tweet
• No one outranks God. He rules independent of the control of any other being, even Satan. Absolutely no one has more control over the events of this world—over the events in your life and its best and worst circumstances—than God.  Tweet
• “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.” – Proverbs 16:9 Tweet
• “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” – Philippians 2:13 Tweet
• “The LORD works out everything for his own ends—even the wicked for a day of disaster.” – Proverbs 16:4 Tweet
• “[Christ] is the authority over all authorities, and the supreme power over all powers.” – Colossians 2:10, Phillips Tweet
• “See now that I am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.” – Deuteronomy 32:39  Tweet
• “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?” – Lamentations 3:38 Tweet
• “The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts.” – 1 Samuel 2:7 Tweet
• “Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked? When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider; God has made the one as well as the other.” – Ecclesiastes 7:13-14 Tweet
• “God may not initiate all our trials—but by the time they reach us, they are his will for us.” – Steve Estes Tweet
• “I’ll see to it that everything works out for the best.” – Isaiah 54:17, MSG Tweet

“See now that I am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.” ~ Deuteronomy 32:39 http://bit.ly/2BWHNwp @NatalieGNichols >> https://ctt.ec/2AC1e
“The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts.” ~ 1 Samuel 2:7 http://bit.ly/2BWHNwp @NatalieGNichols >>https://ctt.ec/0Ku9x
“Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?” ~ Lamentations 3:38 http://bit.ly/2BWHNwp @NatalieGNichols >> https://ctt.ec/dcmW3
“Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked? When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider; God has made the one as well as the other.” ~ Ecclesiastes 7:13-14 http://bit.ly/2BWHNwp @NatalieGNichols >> https://ctt.ec/_2CSP
“God may not initiate all our trials—but by the time they reach us, they are his will for us.” ~ Steve Estes, http://bit.ly/2BWHNwp @NatalieGNichols >>https://ctt.ec/3uk5o
“I’ll see to it that everything works out for the best.” ~ Isaiah 54:17, MSG http://bit.ly/2BWHNwp @NatalieGNichols >> https://ctt.ec/vO0QP

Question:

• Which of these these scriptures caused you to rest in God’s sovereign rule and gave you peace concerning the trial you’re enduring? 
• Do you believe that God is seeing to it that everything is working out for your best, as Isaiah 54:17 states?

OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS SERIES:

• Part 1: His Throne Rules Over All
• Part 2: Filtered Through His Fingers of Love
• Part 3: The Apple and the Alien
• Part 4: Seesaw Control: How Perspective Draws Victory from Defeat
• Part 5: Do God and Satan Alternate Shifts?
• Part 6: God Governs Hands-On, Using Even Evil for His Purpose
• Part 7: His Purpose Prevails: God’s Control Over Sinful Acts
• Resting in God’s Sovereign Rule: The Complete Series

RELATED ARTICLES:

• Overcoming Adversity 101, Part 3: What About Accidents?
• Overcoming Adversity 101, Part 4: The Long Ranger
• Overcoming Adversity 101, Part 5: Is God Good and Loving?
• Overcoming Adversity 101, Part 6: A Few Reasons Why
• Overcoming Adversity 101, Part 7: A Few More Reasons Why
• Overcoming Adversity 101, Part 8: Ten Final Reasons Why
• Overcoming Adversity 101, Part 9: Sovereignty vs. Healing

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1. Joni E. Tada and Steve Estes, When God Weeps (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1997), 220
2. Ibid., 231

* All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.