TSMSS - God is in Control!

We live in such a broken world. I don't even remember the last time we turned on the TV news, but my laptop certainly provides an up-to-the-minute reminder of humanity's downward spiral. Especially considering some of the events of this week, Romans 1:18-32 certainly describes our country and our world:

18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Particularly in a Presidential Election year, it is easy to worry and fret over the future of the country and the well-being of our families. How reassuring to know that God is sovereign over even the affairs of those who do not please Him! Not one thing happens that surprises Him. In fact, Daniel 2:21 reminds us that God "sets up kings and deposes them."

One of my favorite passages of scripture is in Isaiah 45, which says,

This is what the Lord says to his anointed,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of. . .
For the sake of Jacob my servant,
of Israel my chosen,
I summon you by name
and bestow on you a title of honor,
though you do not acknowledge me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other;
apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you,
though you have not acknowledged me,
so that from the rising of the sun
to the place of its setting
men may know there is none besides me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
(Isaiah 45:1, 4-6)

I love this song by Avalon, which was also an old classic sung by Twila Paris. We can rejoice that God is in Control!



I love linking up at Amy's each week; come join us for more songs!