Balancing Desire for Control with Trust in God's Sovereignty
The desire for control often conflicts with the theological concept of God's sovereignty, which asserts God's absolute right to govern all things according to his will [4]. This tension is a recurring theme in biblical thought and Christian experience.
God's sovereignty is understood as his eternal, unchangeable, holy, wise, and sovereign purpose that encompasses all events, determining their future occurrence [6]. This includes both the grand sweep of history and the minute details of individual lives. For instance, the kings of the earth may scheme against the Lord and his anointed, desiring independence from his established order, but ultimately, God's rule prevails [9]. This divine authority is not merely a passive oversight but an active determination of all things [4].
Despite this overarching divine control, humans are called to exercise self-control and make conscious choices. The apostle Paul, for example, stated his continuous effort to maintain a clear conscience before God and humanity [1]. Similarly, Peter exhorted believers to add self-control to their knowledge [2]. This human agency is not seen as negating God's sovereignty but operating within its framework. The Puritan commentator Matthew Henry describes David's struggle with temptation to distrust God and resort to "indirect means for his own safety," instead choosing to trust in God [11]. David's seeking of God's precepts and desire to understand and do God's will further illustrates this active pursuit of righteousness within a sovereign plan [10].
The balance between human responsibility and divine sovereignty is also evident in calls to seek God's kingdom and submit to his authority [7]. This involves adopting God's value system and pursuing his purpose in the world [7]. John Gill, a Baptist commentator, interprets submission to God's will as accepting one's worldly circumstances and being content with the portion allotted by God, rather than striving with "anxious cares" [8]. This perspective suggests that while individuals have desires and make efforts, the ultimate outcome rests with God.
The Old Testament provides examples of individuals recognizing God's ultimate control while still acting. King Hezekiah, for instance, purposed to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel so that God might turn away his wrath [3]. This act of covenant-making demonstrates human initiative in seeking God's favor, even as it acknowledges God's power to act. The book of Job also grapples with this tension, with Job acknowledging God's justice and power, asking, "how can man be just with God?" [5]. This question highlights the vast disparity between human capacity and divine omnipotence.
Sources
- Acts “Acts 24:16 (Tyndale) — And therfore stody I to have a cleare consciece towarde God and toward man also.”
- II Peter “II Peter 1:6 (BBE) — And self-control to knowledge, and a quiet mind to self-control, and fear of God to a quiet mind,”
- II Chronicles “II Chronicles 29:10 (Geneva1599) — Now I purpose to make a couenant with the Lord God of Israel, that he may turne away his fierce wrath from vs.”
- Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: Sovereignty — Of God, his absolute right to do all things according to his own good pleasure (Dan. 4:25, 35; Rom. 9:15-23; 1 Tim. 6:15; Rev. 4:11).”
- Job “Job 9:2 (LITV) — Truly I know it is so; but how can man be just with God?”
- Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: Decrees of God — "The decrees of God are his eternal, unchangeable, holy, wise, and sovereign purpose, comprehending at once all things that ever were or will be in their causes, conditions, successions, and relations, and determining their certain futurition. The several contents of this one eternal purpose are, because of the limitation of our faculties, necessarily conceived of by us in partial aspects, and in logical relations, and are therefore styled Decrees." The decree being the act of an infinite, absolute, eternal, unchangeable, and sovereign Person, compre”
- Luke (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Luke 12:31: 12:31 Seek the Kingdom of God: Adopt God’s value system, pursue his purpose in the world, and submit to his authority.”
- James (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on James 4:7: To the will of God, with respect to worldly things, and be content with such things as are enjoyed, and be satisfied with the portion that is allotted; it is right and best for the people of God to leave themselves with him, to choose their inheritance for them, since by all their anxious cares, their striving and struggling, their impatient desires, wars and fightings, as they cannot add one cubit to their stature, so nothing to their worldly substance; and it becomes them to submit to God in all afflictive dispensations of his providence, and be still and know that he”
- Psalms (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Psalms 2:2: 2:2 The kings hate the Lord’s established order in the world, so they desire to be independent of him (see 36:4). They scheme about dominating the Lord’s people (31:13; see 83:1-4). Their goal is to subvert the Lord’s rule in the world by overthrowing his anointed one (or his messiah); the Lord chose the kings of David’s dynasty to establish his kingdom throughout the earth. The New Testament confirms that Jesus, the appointed and anointed Son of God (Acts 4:26; 13:33; Heb 1:5; 5:5), fulfills the role in which these earlier kings failed.”
- Psalms (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Psalms 119:45: We may observe in these verses, 1. What David experienced of an affection to the law of God: "I seek thy precepts, Psa 119:45. I desire to know and do my duty, and consult thy word accordingly; I do all I can to understand what the will of the Lord is and to discover the intimations of his mind. I seek thy precepts, for I have loved them, Psa 119:47, Psa 119:48. I not only give consent to them as good, but take complacency in them as good for me." All that love God love his government and therefore love all his commandments. 2. What he expected from this. Five t”
- Psalms (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Psalms 11 (introduction): In this psalm we have David's struggle with and triumph over a strong temptation to distrust God and betake himself to indirect means for his own safety in a time of danger. It is supposed to have been penned when he began to feel the resentments of Saul's envy, and had had the javelin thrown at him once and again. He was then advised to run his country. "No," says he, "I trust in God, and therefore will keep my ground." Observe, I. How he represents the temptation, and perhaps parleys with it, (Psa 11:1-3). II. How he answers it, and puts it to silen”