30 Days of Him... Day 3. Sovereign

So, I'm working at Starbucks tonight, its coming on 10pm, and I have to let people in the cafe know we are closing down for the night... I tell the group of Florida Gator Girls (all wearing Go Gators sweatshirts... and one of them went to Troy. The Lovely Steph Leann is so lucky she has me) that we are closing, then I inform the two people drinking O'Henry's Coffee in the corner. In Starbucks. Seriously, who does that?

Then I head to the back corner, and hear one girl talking... I strained my neck to see without coming any closer and discovered she was praying quietly aloud with the girl she was with. I stepped back and let them finish, returning a few minutes later.

"What were we studying tonight?" I asked, eyeing the Swords in front of both girls.
"Oh, we were just looking around in Hebrews tonight," said the Red Head. "God's been good this semester, and we were just talking about that. His sovereignty is amazing."
"Well," I replied with a smile, "isn't God good every semester? Isn't he always sovereign? Its usually us that only notice it at certain times."

Both Red Head and Brunette smile, with Red Head saying, "Yeah, thats true... He's good every semester!"

I thought about that after Red Head and Brunette left... isn't it funny how we like to praise God about how good He's been to us lately? "God's been good to me this month!" or "Wow, today God has been awesome!" or "Wow, this rocks. God loves me"

God's always good to us. God's always good to you. God's always good to me. I know this. Sometimes I forget it. Sometimes I don't realize that God being good to me doesn't necessarily mean that I'll be happy as a result of it... sometimes I fail to recognize that God being good to me might mean this will hurt for a little while. But God cannot possibly be bad to me. Its not in His nature. Its not in His design, whatever that means.

God cannot possibly do anything to cause us to fail in the prime objective... the ultimate glorification of God Himself.

Here's the one you don't want to hear (for Val and... Lauren? I hope that's her name... sorry, my memory can be terrible!!)

Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best. God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. Hebrews 12:10 (NIV)

And here's the one that you want to hear...

Clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk! You've had a taste of God. Now, drink deep of God's pure kindness. I Peter 2: 1-3 (The Message)


I mean... before Casting Crowns and Bethany Dillon and all these other up-and-comers... there was Crystal Lewis. And it was good.