“I could be lost inside their lies, without a trace.
But every time I close my eyes, I see your face.
“I never saw no miracle of science,
That didn’t go from a blessing to a curse.
I never saw no military solution,
That didn’t always end up as something worse, but
Let me say this first.
“If I ever lose my faith in you,
There’d be nothing left for me to do.” —Sting
In the last two blog posts we shared the first TWO TRUTHS we need to remember when we feel like we’re “deconstructing.” In this blog, I’ll share TRUTH #3. (Check out the previous entries for more in this series.)
TRUTH #3: In a world that is unstable and scary, God is still SOVEREIGN and STRONG.
After being asked this question by a well-meaning friend in Psalm 11:3, “When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” David shared his response in Verse 4.
The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne.
—Ps 11:4 NIV
Despite the political, cultural and personal landscape of his life that appeared to be completely unstable and shaken, David affirmed his belief in the strength and sovereignty of God. I love the intimacy of David’s expression of faith as it appears in The Message.
“I’ve already run for dear life straight to the arms of God. So why would I run away now…” —Ps 11:1 MSG
One of the things we desperately need to recover in this moment, when everything around us seems incredibly unstable and unsure, is a rock-solid understanding of the character and attributes of God.
Devotional writer, A.W. Tozer was right when he made this statement in his classic, The Knowledge of the Holy.
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” —A.W. Tozer
Three Facts About God:
There are three facts about God that can give us stability when our world feels as if it is falling apart.
- Fact #1: God is UNCAUSED. He’s ETERNAL.
God isn’t old! He is eternal! He doesn’t have a birth date and He certainly doesn’t have an expiration date! Nobody breathed life into God! Nobody gave birth to the Almighty!
God creates, but He was never created! He makes, but He was never made. He causes, but He was never caused.
In Psalm 90, Moses compared the eternal, everlasting nature of God to the brief, lives of men and women. The fact that God is uncaused, eternal and everlasting gave Moses a tremendous amount confidence and security. Read the entire psalm when you get a chance. It’s beautiful. But the psalm begins with these words:
Lord, through all the generations you have been our home!
2 Before the mountains were created, before you made the earth and the world, you are God, without beginning or end. — Psalm 90:2 NLT
Moses felt “at home” — he felt confidence, certainty and assurance in the fact that God doesn’t simply outlive or outlast us all. God has always been! He is eternal. Because of that, He isn’t surprised or shocked by anyone or anything. Nobody brought Him into being, nobody can take Him out!
Your personal struggle with doubt or deconstruction doesn’t threaten Him. Neither do those in the “deconstruction movement!”
Atheists and agnostics don’t freak Him out. Political unrest, COVID, sexual and gender confusion, truth wars and anything else 2021 may throw at us doesn’t cause God to wring His hands with anxiety, thinking to Himself, “I didn’t see that coming…” God was there before any of us existed. He’ll be there long after we’re all gone! He is uncaused or eternal! Both Moses and David found a great deal of comfort in that fact.
- Fact #2: God doesn’t CHANGE. He is IMMUTABLE.
God is who He is and He is who He has always been! He never changes.
I love the words He spoke to Malachi.
“I am the LORD, and I do not change.” — Malachi 3:6 NLT
The writer of Hebrews described Jesus in the same way when he wrote, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” —Heb 13:8
In his book, Traveling Light, Max Lucado shares a story from the life of Lloyd Douglas.
Douglas was a minister and the author of several bestselling books, including The Robe. When Douglas attended college, he lived in a boardinghouse.
A retired, wheelchair bound music professor lived on the first floor. Every morning Douglas would stick his head in the door of the teacher’s apartment and ask the same question: “Well, what’s the good news?”
The old music teacher would pick up his tuning fork, tap it on the side of his wheelchair and say, “That’s middle C! It was middle C yesterday; it will be middle C tomorrow; it will be middle C a thousand years from now. The tenor upstairs sings flat. The piano across the hall is out of tune, but, my friend, this is middle C.”
I love that story!
All of us need a “middle C”
All of us desperately need a “middle C” in 2021. We need something that stays the same when everything around us is changing.
One of the only things we can count on in this life is that things are going to change. It’s just a fact. Our health will change. Relationships will change. The weather will change. People change. The stock market is going to change. Culture will change. But the same God who ruled the universe yesterday is the same God who is ruling the universe today. He’s the same God who ruled it before time began! He is immutable. Our God doesn’t change.
That’s something to remember when everything around you seems to be in a constant stage of change!
- Fact #3: God is IN CONTROL. He is SOVEREIGN.
The word “sovereign” means “principal, chief or supreme.” It means that God is “sovereign” in his POSITION – there is nobody higher than He is. It also means that God is “sovereign” in His POWER – there is no power greater than His power!
When I write, “God is sovereign,” I mean that, “God is LARGE and IN CHARGE.”
In the words of Chris Tomlin,
“Our God is greater!
Our God is stronger!
God, you are higher than any other.
Our God is healer.
Awesome in power.
Our God. Our God.” —Chris Tomlin, Our God
God doesn’t have any limitations!
He doesn’t need our approval.
He’ll never face an obstacle that can hinder or stop His perfect plan.
Nothing can stand in His way.
Nothing can hinder His work.
Nothing can alter or change His plan.
Our God is AWESOME!
God alone deserves the description, “awesome.”
We use that adjective to describe a lot of stuff in 2021! iPhones are awesome! The PlayStation 5 is awesome! A Harley Davidson Sportster is awesome! Jeni’s ice cream is amazingly AWESOME! We use that adjective to describe everything and anything! (But seriously, Jeni’s ice cream really is AWESOME! Ha.)
But here’s reality: our SOVEREIGN GOD is the only one who actually deserves the title. Our SOVEREIGN GOD is AWESOME!
At least four times in the Bible — Jeremiah 32:17; Jeremiah 32:27; Luke 1:37; Luke 18:27 — the Bible says, “NOTHING is impossible with GOD.” NOTHING!
That’s the very definition of AWESOME. That’s our GOD!
“I am the LORD, the God of all mankind.
Is anything too hard or difficult for me?”
—Jeremiah 32:27 NIV / NAS
God’s purpose can’t be blocked, restrained, or stopped.
God’s intentions can’t be disrupted.
What He purposes will take place without delay, without a hitch, and without fail.
That’s one of the things that held David together when everything in his life felt like it was falling apart. Look back at Verse 1 and 4.
“In the LORD I take refuge… [I’ve already run for dear life straight to the arms of God.] 4 The LORD – [my uncaused, never changing and
in control God] – is in his holy temple; the LORD is on his heavenly throne.”
—Psalm 11:1, 4
David is reminding his well-meaning, but totally freaked out friends of this truth: “God is a safe place to hide. He is holding me in His arms. He is still on His heavenly throne! He still rules and reigns. This world isn’t out of control. God is in control. And that God is holding on to me.”
If we want to develop an unsinkable, unshakeable faith when everything around us feels as if it’s deconstructing, we desperately need a renewed vision of who God actually is.
The Strong and Sovereign God of the Bible
Bible scholar and prolific author, James Montgomery Boice, once described why we desperately need a biblical vision of God with these words.
“We do not have a strong church today nor do we have many strong Christians. We can trace the cause to an acute lack of sound spiritual knowledge. Why is the church weak? Why are individual Christians weak? It’s because they have allowed their minds to become conformed to the ‘spirit of this age,’ with its mechanistic, godless thinking. They have forgotten what God is like and what He promises to do for those who trust Him.
“Ask an average Christian to talk about God. After getting past the expected answers you will find that his god is a little god of vacillating sentiments. He is a god who would like to save the world but who cannot. He would like to restrain evil, but somehow he finds it beyond his power. So he has withdrawn into semi-retirement, being willing to give good advice in a grandfatherly sort of way, but for the most part He has left His children to fend for themselves in a dangerous environment.
“Such a god is not the God of the Bible… …the God of the Bible is not weak; He is strong! He is all-mighty… Nothing disturbs or puzzles Him. His purposes are always accomplished.” —James Montgomery Boice, Foundations for the Christian Faith
When you feel as if you may be deconstructing, pursue God. Run into the arms of your Father. Remember that He is large and in charge. He is sovereign and strong, and He is present when you need Him the most.
When David’s advisers looked at him and said, “When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” David answered daunting fear with rock-solid faith:
The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne.
—Ps 11:4 NIV
In our next post, we’ll share the fourth truth to remember when you feel like you’re deconstructing.