Who's Really On The Throne?

As followers of Christ, there are many stark realities to face, not the least of which are realities about ourselves. God calls the Christian to a place of frequent (and honest) self-examination.  And if we undertake this task for ourselves in earnest, we will soon discover that we spend a good amount of time occupying the throne of our life. Oh yes we do!

Think about it – let’s say someone forces his way into your grandma’s house, tells her "Don't move!", and proceeds to rob her. When it's over, she’s terrified and doesn't call the police, but she tells you who did it. What's your reaction....truthfully? Yes, most of us would get angry and would start hunting that person DOWN! But wait: didn't the Lord say "Vengeance is mine...I will repay"? Didn’t He say, “Be angry, but sin not.”?

When God saves us, we relinquish the throne of our lives to God, allowing Him to occupy it and to run our lives. But, when we decide to "help” God out by coming up with our own solutions, we are putting ourselves right back on the throne we SAID we had turned over to God. We instinctively trust our own hands on a situation and our own rule over our domain. We THINK we are at ease when we are on the throne because we feel like we have control. But our impatience for God's providence and His process is tantamount to us saying that we know better than God (or at least just as much as He does) about what it will take to deal with the issues of our life. We can lose the sense that God is on the throne in those moments when we are seeking to relieve the pressure of a situation through our own efforts. The truth is, though, God hasn’t gone anywhere – we’ve just built a little throne next to His and we’re trying to run things from it!

God is not only sovereign, but He has ALL power in His hands; He has absolutely NO need for our help in any situation…ever. Neither does He have any need for extra thrones in the throne room. However, if we still choose to sit on our throne instead of giving the Lord room to work from His – if we choose to play this game of thrones – He will step back and let us have at it. And He’ll wait, because He knows we’ll be looking for Him again...real soon…..

“The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all.” Psalm 103:19 (NASB)