"God Who Is Over Oceans and Authorities"
Kate Foster
The world was shutting down and I found myself in Florida for a weekend trip with my family. We had been planning this surprise getaway for over a year in preparation for my mom’s 50th birthday without any hint that a worldwide pandemic would invade every corner of our world. As the trip approached, life was shifting, and uncertainty and unrest were settling into the daily rhythms of life. As soon as we arrived, I planted myself on the sand and watched as the sun sank below the horizon and the tide came in. Closer and closer the waterline crept towards me. I moved back and watched the water breathe. In and out. The waves pushing and pulling. A peaceful tug of war. How was the beauty so overwhelming here? Didn’t the oceans know the world felt as though it was crumbling all around us? Couldn’t it sense my fear?
What do you hold onto when all of life feels so out of control?
I looked at the water. I watched it come and go, the tide rose but then it stopped. It held its line. I looked at a full shoreline of hotels and buildings and parking lots that built their livelihood and structures on the certainty of that shoreline. As the evening settled in, so did the ocean. The water and waves pulled back to their place and the shoreline sparkled with new treasures from the deep.
Who do you look to when all of life feels so out of control?
The water draws my eyes upward. I look to its Creator. The only One capable to give boundaries to something as vast and grand as an ocean, and have the ability to back those decrees up.
“...will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?” -Jeremiah 5:22
I know that the God who placed limits on the oceans (Jeremiah 31:35, Proverbs 8:27-29, Psalms 33:7), also has power over the boundaries of the world. That when everything is out of my control, it fits perfectly inside of His. The God who confines the oceans to their places, has the ending written for the evil and hardships this world faces. The unknowns are known to Him. The trials have boundaries. His authority doesn’t waver when humanity seems to run in its own direction. He is the same and He is in control. SOVEREIGN.
So now what? If God is truly sovereign, I want to live in light of that truth. I want to build my life in the confidence of that authority. A home built along the tide lines of the ocean. But how do we know for sure? How do we know His authority will withstand any human revolt? Any fear? Any dysfunction or economic shift? Any injustice? He says so.
“The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.” -Proverbs 12:1
“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have PEACE. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” -John 16:33
“Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” -1 John 4:4
The unrest will reach its limit. There are sovereignly appointed restraints set in place. His ultimate victory has the final word. Our Sovereign God has us in His hands.
You, me, and the oceans.
Kate Foster
ARH Staff Writer
I’ve attached a printable for you! My prayer is that no matter what season or trial you are facing, maybe this simple exercise will help direct your eyes upward and remind your heart about the trustworthiness of our God! Fill it out, read it out loud, and let it sink in!
“He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces.” -Isaiah 25:8
God wins.
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