The pandemic, or panic-demic, is casting a pall of deadly fear over the globe. People want to hear from government officials. They want to hear most of all from the medical experts and the vaccination researchers. The public wants to be assured and reassured that the ones in the know are – to their best ability – working to bring the disease and panic under control.
This year raises a parallel question: Who’s going to be in control at the White House? With the economic volatility, the question again surfaces. Does the Fed have things under control? On a personal level, each may wonder, “Is anyone really in control as I now have to deal with (fill in the blank)? It’s devastating my life and that of my family!”
Friends, we all need an overarching reminder. Our Lord God most certainly is in control of all things in heaven and on earth! The One who is “sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty” is the very One who has defeated sin, death, Satan, and hell for us all. As our Savior-God, He is ruling over every aspect of our lives for the good of His church – that is, for the benefit of each and every believer. That includes you and me!
The One who died on the old, rugged cross and rose at the new tomb has fully sealed our eternal redemption. And right now, as our ascended, living, and loving Lord, He is exercising His governing power over the whole universe! He is supremely in control and uses His almighty, providential rule – and most vitally His power of spiritual rule by means of Word and Sacrament – to turn even the challenging and sudden ordeals of life into blessings for His faithful followers. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2Co 4:17).
God, our beloved Savior, is in control! He is filled with love and He is almighty. I love the words of David in Psalm 62, stressing two things which give fellow believers tremendous comfort. David writes: “One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O Lord, are loving.”
Rev. John A. Moldstad,
ELS President