Thus far in our Summer Sermon Series, we’ve been considering God’s sovereignty in the affairs of people. We’ve seen that God is trustworthy because he is sovereign over people, nations, and nature. As with most doctrines in the Bible, there is a ditch on either side of the road that we must avoid. I.e., we want to avoid the extremes on either side of the doctrine of God’s sovereignty.

The ditch on one side of the road is that some people push God’s sovereignty to the extent that they deny human responsibility. Since God is sovereign, they claim that we are not responsible for ourselves or our actions. God does it all. Success or failure, achievement or accident are all because of God’s activity and we can’t do anything about it. We are little more than puppets on strings or computers running the program fed into us. It’s a fatalistic approach to life in which we have no control of anything.

In the ditch on the other side of the road are those who emphasize human responsibility to the extent that they deny God’s sovereignty. They claim that God depends on us; he’s waiting around and hoping that we will act so he can fulfill his plans. God’s hands are tied until we give him permission to act. On this view, God depends on man.

A balanced view on this topic affirms both God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. We want to stay out of both ditches, both extremes. I don’t claim to understand how God’s sovereignty and human responsibility work together, but they do. God is sovereign, and man is responsible; we must affirm both and stay out of both ditches.

Let’s consider what the Bible says about God’s sovereignty and our responsibility. And particularly, I want to focus on the concepts of prayer and prudence.