Sunday, March 1, 2020

An Unplanned but Powerful Family Tradition


Traditions are interesting things, aren’t they? Some you plan out, knowing that this tradition is one you want to develop in your family. One example of this type of tradition in our family is reading the Christmas story together on Christmas morning and singing Christmas carols before we open gifts. However, other traditions just sort of happen, and once they become a part of your routine, they become deeply integrated into the rhythm of life. For our family, that is the singing of two particular songs most nights before bed. Since the kids were little, we have read to them at bedtime, and somewhere along the way, without meaning to make it a habit, we began singing “Our God is an Awesome God” and “Oh God, you are my God” at the end of this reading time. My husband had introduced the kids to these Rich Mullins’ songs at some point, and now for several years, these two songs have been part of our nightly ritual, a tradition of sorts.  

The other night as we began singing our songs, the lyrics of “Awesome God” struck me anew. “Our God is an awesome God. He reigns from heaven above with wisdom and power and love.” He reigns! Do you need to remember that today? I do. We have a God who is sitting on the throne, sovereign and reigning over every circumstance in our lives. Nothing catches Him off guard. He rules over all, and He works it all for good on behalf of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). And I love the words that follow that specify how He reigns.

He reigns with wisdom. Wisdom speaks of the ability to know what’s right and what’s wrong and to act accordingly. God is all-wise. In every situation, He knows what is best for His children, what will further His kingdom, and what will bring Him glory. My wisdom is limited; I never see the big picture as God does. I try to imagine how God should work (according to my wisdom) and struggle at times when He works differently in ways that I personally would not have found wise. Paul cautions us in Romans 11 from this type of thinking when he declares, “Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor?” (33-34). I can’t counsel God. The finite limited mind doesn’t give advice to the infinite, all-knowing God. My response is to trust. I think that is why in I Peter 5, the call to cast all our fears on God (7) is actually related to the command to humble ourselves before God (6). In the context, casting our cares on Him describes how we humble ourselves. We recognize His sovereignty and wisdom and allow Him to do in our lives as He pleases, and we give the things that we fear and can’t control into His all-wise sovereign care.

He reigns with power. He is able to do what He wills to do because He is all-powerful. Pastor Adam has been preaching through God’s attributes, and the statement that has stuck with me the most from this series came a few weeks ago when he was speaking on this very topic. God is sovereign both in his authority and His ability. But so often, we want the authority ourselves while asking God for His power to bless our plans. God uses His power to ultimately accomplish His will, not mine. I can pray for certain outcomes (indeed I’m commanded to bring my requests before God), but I submit those desires to God’s will. Whatever He then wills will come to pass, because His power makes it happen. In Isaiah 46:10-11, God says, “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.”

He reigns with love. Aren’t you grateful for that? God is for us, not against us! “If God is for us, who [or what situation] can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32). God is working on your behalf out of the loving heart of a perfect Father. And though at times it may feel that His hand is against us in the sufferings we face in a broken world, we know that this is not true. For even in the sufferings, He is purifying us and growing our faith, and He promises as a result of the suffering to bring about greater glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ (I Peter 1:6-7). Sisters, may we together pray for each other what Paul prayed for the Ephesian church, that we “being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:17-19).

What then should our response be to our God who is reigning with wisdom, power, and love? It’s the second song we sing every night: “Oh God, you are my God, and I will ever praise You. I will seek You in the morning, and I will learn to walk in Your way, and step by step You’ll lead me. And I will follow You all my days.”


--Amy O'Rear

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