Understanding and believing in the sovereignty God is of vital importance to the Christian for these two reasons:

1) It gives us absolute assurance that our loving heavenly Father is in control of our lives even when we may be perplexed or confused by our circumstances. Jesus gave us His assurance:

“I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish—ever; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 [a]My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. (John 10:28-29).”

2) We know that wherever God leads us to serve, our service will accomplish an eternal weight of glory. This is an important truth because we often ask the question “is it all worth it?” We see little visual evidence of “success” and wonder if God is really working through us. J.B. Phillips paraphrase renders 2 Corinthians 4:17 this way:

These little troubles (which are really so transitory) are winning for us a permanent, glorious and solid reward out of all proportion to our pain. For we are looking all the time not at the visible things but at the invisible. The visible things are transitory: it is the invisible things that are really permanent.

It's understanding the sovereignty of God that keeps us going when we don't see the results we expected.

In Today's My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers, he reminds us of God's sovereign purposes in our lives. It's good to be reminded of this important Truth Matter:

“After sanctification, it is difficult to state what your purpose in life is, because God has moved you into His purpose through the Holy Spirit. He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself, thinking, “God has called me for this and for that,” you barricade God from using you. As long as you maintain your own personal interests and ambitions, you cannot be completely aligned or identified with God's interests. This can only be accomplished by giving up all of your personal plans once and for all, and by allowing God to take you directly into His purpose for the world. Your understanding of your ways must also be surrendered, because they are now the ways of the Lord.

I must learn that the purpose of my life belongs to God, not me. God is using me from His great personal perspective, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him. I should never say, “Lord, this causes me such heartache.” To talk that way makes me a stumbling block. When I stop telling God what I want, He can freely work His will in me without any hindrance. He can crush me, exalt me, or do anything else He chooses. He simply asks me to have absolute faith in Him and His goodness. Self-pity is of the devil, and if I wallow in it I cannot be used by God for His purpose in the world.”

My prayer for you and me this day is this: Lord, sometimes we can't see how You are using us... how our lives are significant or accomplishing anything for the kingdom. Help us Lord to be faithful to that which You have called us knowing that You are using our faithfulness in ways we may not see or understand this side of heaven. Keep us vigilant and in-tuned to the Spirit and then be glad the results are in Your hands. Amen.

Walk with the King today and be a blessing.