Grosey's Messages

Wisdom About Worry   God's Sovereignty

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. ⁶ In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Why should you trust God?

God's Sovereignty in Proverbs

Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.  Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever

How God uses people's sin, their wickedness and their rebellion, in His sovereign plan without in any way being responsible for their actions  Like Judas, whose betrayal of Jesus was predestined, but whose fault for that betrayal was completely his own!!! The exact relationship between God's sovereignty and human responsibility is a mystery. We believe in human agency. People do what they want to.

But that is the very trouble. There is no free will.  Every one is influenced by something else: parents.(voting), close family relationships, schooling,  friends. Prov 1:10-16 You are influenced by your own selfish desires, your lusts, your insecurities. You are influenced by sin. And quite often we are not even aware of how our sinfulness influences our decisions. What is the hope of any of us getting things right?  And if we get some things right, we are usually so proud of it that we are completely wrong before God!  The will is not free. It is influenced by sin. Biased (bowls), weighted to self sin.

GOD IS SOVEREIGN OVER HUMAN WILLS AND ACTIONS

Proverbs 16:1 To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the reply of the tongue.  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.

GOD IS SOVEREIGN OVER THE HEARTS OF KINGS

Proverbs 21:1 The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.

Exodus 14:8 The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly.   Acts 4:27-28 Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.   David, Absalom, Ahithophel. Hushai advice.

GOD IS SOVEREIGN OVER SEEMINGLY RANDOM EVENTS

Proverbs 16:33 The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.  John Calvin: God so attends to the regulations of individual events, and they all so proceed from his set plan, that nothing takes place by chance.

GOD IS SOVEREIGN OVER BATTLES.

Proverbs 21:30 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.  31 The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the LORD.

Hitler: Dunkirk (1/3m.) Russia, r. Rommel, slept in D Day.

GOD IS SOVEREIGN OVER HIS ENEMIES.

Proverbs 16:4 The LORD works out everything for his own ends-- even the wicked for a day of disaster.

WHY YOU SHOULD TRUST IN GOD

He Is In Control Proverbs 16:9 (CSB) says, "A person's heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps."
Dr. F. B. Meyer said, "The black clouds are only His water cisterns, and on the other side they are bathed in sunshine. Do not look at your sorrow in the lowlands of your pilgrimage, but from the uplands of God's purpose."

He is Working Out His Plan  Ephesians 1:11 the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,  Puritan Thomas Goodwin said in his commentary on Ephesians, "[God] plots everything beforehand.... Nothing falls out but what He had laid the plot before."

His Purposes Prevail in and through His enemies
Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

HOW DO YOU TRUST IN GOD?

Abandon Your Self Into God's Hands        

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,

Abandon Your Plans For His Plan               

and do not lean on your own understanding.

Acknowledge His Plans All The Time    In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths

James 4:13-16 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.

Joachim Neander Praise ye the Lord, Who o'er all things so wondrously reigneth, Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth! Hast thou not seen how thy desires e'er have been   Granted in what He ordaineth?