As believers, we all acknowledge God’s sovereignty. Although He is indeed supreme, we mustn’t wrongly divide this key point by making that an excuse to be passive, lazy Christians. The popular assumption is that God is in complete control; however, He actually has given that control to us. This kind of authority was His original plan when He made mankind in His image and gave them dominion over the earth and everything in it.

After Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden and allowed Satan to steal their authority, Jesus eventually came and restored it to mankind, which was God’s unmerited favor demonstrated toward us. He gave us power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Fully believing this puts us in a position to use this authority. Failure to balance our faith with God’s grace pushes us to either extreme and gives us a false balance, which is an abomination to God.

It’s erroneous to assume that everything that happens is God’s will; this ignores the fact that He made us free moral agents. He has set before us life and death, blessing and cursing. He advises us to choose life, but our cooperation is needed for His will to come to pass.

God isn’t responsible for the evil things that happen. It’s not in His nature to send us poverty, sickness, or death. There’s a devil loose in this world; this thief is bent on stealing, killing, and destroying, but God’s will is for us to have life, and have it abundantly. His thoughts toward us are for peace, not evil, and agreeing in faith with those plans authorizes us to enforce His will.

Faith is our positive response to what grace has made available; our faith gives us access to this grace. Faith unleashes the power that works in us. Using it allows God to show us grace in exceeding, abundant measure. Properly balancing the two gives us amazing results.

Prayer:

Lord, You gave us the double blessing of being our sovereign king who protects us and watches over us, while ceding to us the same power and authority that Your Son has. Your Word teaches us how to balance faith with grace so that we don’t end up in error. Thank You for teaching us this. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Scriptures:

• Genesis 1:26
• Luke 10:19
• Proverbs 11:1
• Deuteronomy 30:19
• John 10:10
• Jeremiah 29:11
• Romans 5:2
• Ephesians 3:20