This is a paper I wrote for school, the idea's in it are taken mostly out of the book
"Desiring God Meditations of a Christian Hedonist" By John Piper. It is great book and I would really recommend it as a good resource.
“Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3) God has the right and the power to do all that he wants to. That is what we mean when say God is sovereign. Think about it, if that is true then nothing can stop God.
If God is all powerful and can do anything, he must be the happiest person ever. John Piper wrote in his book Desiring God, “God has the right and power to do whatever makes him happy.” If nothing is stopping God from doing whatever makes him happy then why wouldn’t he be happy? The answer is that he is happy. In fact he is so happy, that he is the only being that has ever felt what it means to be happy as possible. This huge well of perfect happiness is where all true Christians come to get their life and their happiness. Piper put it like this, “What if God were frustrated and despondent and gloomy and discontent and dejected? Could we join with David and say, ‘O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water’ (Psalm 63:1)…We would relate to God like little children who have a frustrated, gloomy, dismal, discontent, father. They can’t enjoy him.”
Would you want to go and spend time with someone like that? The aim for a Christian is to be happy in God, to delight in his fellowship forever; therefore the foundation of the Christian walk is the happiness of God. And the foundation of the happiness of God is the sovereignty of God: “Our God, is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3) But don’t think that God is like some child who must be kept happy at all times, or else he will start to scream and throw things. That’s not what I mean; it is more that we are the dependent ones. We are the ones who will get all out of whack if we don’t get our full drink of God’s overflowing joy.
We all long for happiness but how many of us really get it? The only reason we don’t is because we choose not to. We choose not to spend time talking with God, we choose not to read our Bibles or go to church; we choose not to drink from the well of life that would give us pure joy through all of this life and into the next. How do you think the martyrs were able to sing on their way to their deaths? How were they strong enough to carry their own babies with them into the lion’s den? It was because the whole while they were drinking from God’s well of happiness and he was the one to give them the strength to go on.
For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, who makes lightning’s for the rain and brings forth the wind from the wind from his storehouse.
God’s sovereignty over men’s affairs in not compromised even when it comes to sin and evil in the world. It is not just as applies to good men or nice weather; God is still in control whether it is soothing an angry sister or starting a hurricane. It’s all in God plan. If there is a God in heaven then there is no such thing as a mere coincidence; everything that happens is under Gods control. From when the caterpillar will turn into a butterfly, to whether or not you will get that big raise you have been hoping for. “Not a sparrow will fall to the ground without your father’s will” (Matthew 10:29) “The lot is cast into the lap, but every decision comes from the Lord” (Proverbs 16:33)
It is so easy to imagine God has abandoned us. We feel that, because the washer broke or a close friend died God has nothing to do with our lives. But that is so wrong; God has a specific reason for every tiny little thing that happens to us. It is like we are on a huge stage and God is our director, every big and little thing that happens is in the script. God has written everything out we just don’t know how to read. But that is why God is God and we are not. He knows how everything is supposed to play out. He is not surprised when you get mud on your favorite shirt and trip on your way up the stairs. God is sovereign and nothing that happens is out of his plan.
