GOD-WILL OF-SOVEREIGN

God will never allow any action against you that is not in accord with His will for you. And His will is always directed to our good.

Jerry Bridges

We do have a responsibility to make wise decisions or to discover the will of God, whichever term we may prefer to use. But God’s plan for us is not contingent upon our decisions. God’s plan is not contingent at all. God’s plan is sovereign. It includes our foolish decisions as well as our wise ones.

Jerry Bridges

The evil Satan causes is only by the permission of God… It would be unbiblical and irrelevant to attribute to Satan (or sinful man) the power to frustrate the designs of God.

John Piper

Desiring God, Bethlehem Baptist Church, 1996, p. 36, used by permission, www.desiringGod.org.

God “works all things after the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11). This “all things” includes the fall of sparrows (Matthew 10:29), the rolling of dice (Proverbs 16:33), the slaughter of his people (Psalm 44:11), the decisions of kings (Proverbs 21:1), the failing of sight (Exodus 4:11), the sickness of children (2 Samuel 12:15), the loss and gain of money (1 Samuel 2:7), the suffering of saints (1 Peter 4:19), the completion of travel plans (James 4:15), the persecution of Christians (Hebrews 12:4-7), the repentance of souls (2 Timothy 2:25), the gift of faith (Philippians 1:29), the pursuit of holiness (Philippians 3:12-13), the growth of believers (Hebrews 6:3), the giving of life and the taking in death (1 Samuel 2:6) and the crucifixion of his Son (Acts 4:27-28).

John Piper

Much zeal is shown for the freedom of man’s will; little jealousy seems to be left for the freedom of God’s will. Men insist that it is unjust and tyrannical in God to control their wills, yet see nothing unjust, nothing proud, nothing Satanic in attempting to fetter and direct the will of God. Man, it seems, cannot have his own foolish will gratified, unless the all-wise God will consent to relinquish His! Such are some of the steps in the march of Atheism. Such are the preparations making in these last days by the wily usurper for dethroning the Eternal Jehovah.

Horatius Bonar

The Reign of Grace, Preface, 1844.

Prayers are the nerves that move the muscles of omnipotence. Prayer is not an exercise in futility because God's will, will be done in any case; prayer is the means by which God's will is carried out.

John MacArthur

There is unquestionably a great mystery here as to how a holy God who cannot even look upon evil (Hab. 1:13) can work His will through evil, but that He does is the clear teaching of Scripture. If something could get outside the will of God, it would become a god unto itself and a rival to God. Such can never be the case. God alone is God; there is no other.

Walter Elwell

Evangelical Dictionary of the Bible, Baker, 1996, p. 653.

This will of God is the first cause of all things. If we seek out the reason why things are, back to the original cause, we must find it in the decree, and determined by God's will.

Samuel Willard
The Decrees of God, 1690.