If you are like me, you are highly frustrated and disappointed with the decisions and policies of our government, both state and national. Our government enforces policies and promotes ideas that I find absolutely reprehensible. Because our state and national governments are controlled by people who disagree with us so profoundly, we are often exceedingly disappointed by what our governments are doing.

We should temper such feelings by our trust that God is in control of government. One of the most frequent expressions of God’s sovereignty is his control of nations and their leaders. Governments, rulers, legislatures, and parliaments—even dictators and tyrants—all operate under the sovereignty of God. That does not mean that what they do is good, but what they do ultimately fits into God’s plan.

We just celebrated the 4^th of July, commemorating the founding of the nation. We are very blessed in the US that our founding documents assert that our freedoms are inalienable and come from the Creator, not from the government. Because of these freedoms, we can gather here without threat and without danger. In some places in the world, governments are intentionally attacking Christians. E.g., in the Islamic world; Africa; N. Korea. We should be very thankful that we live in a nation that still allows a degree of religious freedom.

John Newton (1725–1807), converted slave trader, Anglican minister, and author of the familiar hymn “Amazing Grace,” wrote:

The kings of the earth are continually disturbing the world with their schemes of ambition. They expect to carry everything before them, and have seldom any higher end in view, than the gratification of their own passions. But in all they do they are but servants of [our] great King and Lord, and fulfill his purposes…^[1]

We trust that God is fulfilling his purposes through his sovereign control of political leaders and nations. We must recognize and affirm God’s sovereignty over the nations. We can rest secure in the fact that the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord.

^[1] Quoted in Jerry Bridges, Trusting God (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1988), 79.