Behold His sovereignty

You are the Potter

When it seems like I have reason

To question if You are just

Then I see Your faithfulness

Your covenants fulfilled

On the cross

So I will not be ashamed

I'll not be disappointed

In this life You give

In both pain and joy

Because You are just

You are the Potter, we are the clay 

Your ways are higher than our ways

You are the Potter, we are the clay 

Your ways are higher than our ways

Help me live like You did

Help me die my daily death

O help me find all I am in You

Devotional 

The Jews in the time of Paul seemed to have ample reason to be upset. They had been expecting exultant victory at the hands of a King ready to wage battle against the enemies of His chosen people. Instead, they had received a Suffering Servant (Isaiah 42:1-9, 49:1-13, 50:4-11, 52:13 - 53:12; Luke 24:25-27); a King who died a shameful death, Who offered His Gospel not only to His chosen people, but to the Gentiles as well, and constant persecution and suffering (Acts 20 – 28; 2 Corinthians 6:1-13, 11:16-33).

Paul, however, is unmoved. Paul understood that the disappointments perceived by the Jews were the very reason the Gospel had power at all. In fact, he was “not ashamed” of this Gospel (Romans 1:16-17). 

God could have sent His Son adorned in all of the fineries of war.

God could have poured out His wrath and judgment on all the Gentiles and the enemies of the Jews.

God could have done exactly what the Jews expected. But He chose not to. 

God, in His sovereignty, unfurled a plan contrary to the logic and expectations of the Jews. Suddenly, this chosen nation had to come to terms with the fact that God did not deliver on His promises the way they had wanted Him to. But did this make Him any less God?

Jeremiah tells us definitively that is not the case. Employing the imagery of a potter at his wheel, working a lump of clay, we see God as our “potter”. The potter did “as it seemed good to the potter to do” (Jeremiah 18:1-6). In effect, Jeremiah tells us of God’s right do to what He pleases. As God, He is our potter, and we are His clay.  

When we behold the sovereignty of God – His right as God to do what He sees fit – we are freed to live without disappointments and without shame. Instead of confusion, we see the “righteousness of God is revealed” – we see a God who is always faithful, always true, always just, and we see His plans come to perfect fruition through the death of Christ on the cross.  

We may not always understand why God does what He does, or even the ways He chooses to do so, but we can always have confidence in the fact that He is God, and hope, knowing that however His ways look to us, He will always fulfil His purposes. We can always have confidence in the fact that He does what He says He will and that He will never change. We can rest in the truth that, in both success and suffering, God actively loves us and works all things for our good. 

Reflections

1. Consider a time you have felt God’s actions or decisions to be unfair or unjust. How does God as a sovereign God change your perspective on those actions or decisions? 
2. How can we look at suffering differently in light of God’s sovereignty and His constant faithfulness and righteousness? 
3. Paul delights in the salvation of a Gospel offered both to Gentiles AND Jews. How does the sovereignty of God free us to love those who are different to us?