Guest Post - Sovereign Love

I have a special blessing for you today - a blog post from my mom! I always appreciate her wisdom, insight, and faith. I hope the truth she shares encourages you today. 

Sovereign Love

I have occasionally been accused of reckless driving. Like the time I missed my turn off, and I drove a large, U-Haul moving van backwards down the four-lane highway to gain a second chance at it. Of course, since it was 1:00 a.m. and the highway was deserted, I didn’t consider that reckless. But, I’m willing to concede that my children might think so.

There’s a popular worship song now that includes this line: “Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God…”

Reckless: Marked by lack of proper caution; careless of consequences; irresponsible (Merriam Webster Dictionary)

God’s love certainly is overwhelming. It’s never-ending. But, reckless? Careless of consequences? Irresponsible?

I’ve been thinking a lot these days about the sovereignty of God. His sovereignty means He is never careless of consequences. He planned out actions and foresaw consequences before He created the world!

Just consider, God made the butterfly to come from a caterpillar and then a cocoon, because He knew that one day He would tell Paul to write, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” (2 Cor. 5:17) What better example of this “new creation” than the butterfly!

When God created the sheep, He knew that some day David would write, “The Lord is my shepherd…” (Ps. 23:1), and one day Jesus would say, “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep…. ” (John 10:11a) God knew that a lamb would be considered the purest and most innocent of animals, and that He would choose it for the Passover sacrifice and as a symbol for Jesus’ death.

When God planned to give man free will, was He aware of the consequences of that gift? Did He know that Adam and Eve would sin? Was the plan for salvation already in place? (See Gen. 3:15.) Is He sovereign?

I realize I’m never going to totally understand God’s sovereignty. But I need to remember that it is part of His character—an essential part of Who He is, an attribute to study in Scripture and to ponder in my daily life.

Have you heard of the book “Your God Is Too Small” by J. B. Phillips? Let’s put the idea of “reckless” for God in the “too small” column. Let’s celebrate God’s overwhelming, never-ending, pursuing, sovereign love.