God / Sovereignty

  • Exposing the Permissive Will of God

    How has a false view of God’s permissive will affected your Christian walk in the past? Do you have a different view of His permissive will now? How will it affect your walk in the future?Read More

  • Examining the Preceptive Will of God

    During the next few days, read Psalm 119, which praises the preceptive will of God as revealed in His written Word.Read More

  • Comprehending the Decretive Will of God

    Read Genesis 1, observing how God repeatedly exercised His sovereign, efficacious will in creation.Read More

  • Understanding Free Will

    Is your heart open to the needs of others? Is it responsive to spiritual things? Ask God to keep your heart soft and pliable to His divine will and purposes.Read More

  • Affirming God’s Sovereignty

    What difficulties are you currently facing? Reaffirm your trust in the sovereignty of God, who is working all things together for His good pleasure.Read More

  • The Saving Purpose of Christ

    1 Timothy 1:15-16

    John Calvin writes, “The more any one is oppressed by his sins, let him the more courageously betake himself to Christ, relying on this doctrine, that he came to bring salvation not to the righteous, but to ‘sinners.’” God’s ...Read More

  • Grace for the Weary

    Matthew 11:25–30

    John Calvin writes that Christ does not elect us and redeem us that we may sin freely. Instead, Christians are “raised up by his grace, [that] they may also take his yoke upon them, and that, being free in spirit ...Read More

  • Why Sovereignty Matters

    Genesis 50:20–21

    Hear these encouraging comments from John Calvin: “Let the impious busy themselves as they please, let them rage, let them mingle heaven and earth; yet they shall gain nothing by their ardor; and not only shall their impetuosity prove ineffectual ...Read More

  • Hard Providence

    Genesis 45:4-8

    John Calvin’s comments on Genesis 45:8 are essential reading for anyone studying God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. There is much we can say about the Lord’s guiltless use of evil men to achieve His good plan ...Read More

  • Sovereign and Faithful

    Esther 6:14–8:17

    When we look back over our lives, we often find that the Lord was conspicuously present during those times when we thought He was absent. During the times when we suffer from doubts about God’s love for us, we ...Read More

  • The Foolishness of Kings

    Esther 5:1–6:13

    Paul tells us we must subject ourselves to the ruling authorities (Rom. 13:1–7). Yet in submitting to human governments, let us never forget that their authority is not ultimate and that their power is not absolute. In fact ...Read More

  • Providence and Prayer

    James 5:16b–18

    Divine providence should not hinder prayer. Instead it should make us eager to intercede for ourselves and others, because we know God makes use of our prayers to accomplish His will. Consider this example: If my wife is ill, how ...Read More

  • Providence and Freedom

    Job 1

    Man freely does what he wants, but apart from Christ he only desires sin (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 4:8). God has renewed His people, enabling them to desire what is good. Those He has passed over choose willingly, in ...Read More

  • Providence and Evil

    James 1:13

    Those who would use the problem of evil to deny the existence of God have a problem. As many theologians and philosophers have taught, evil is a negative idea, a parasite on the good. Without a previously existing, eternal, and ...Read More

  • Not a Chance

    Ephesians 1:11

    “When that light of divine providence has once shone upon a godly man, he is then relieved and set free not only from the extreme anxiety and fear that were pressing him before, but from every care” (John Calvin, Institutes ...Read More