Most Christians do not struggle with the belief that God is the Creator of this world. The debates in theology have occurred over the degree to which the Creator is “ruling” his creation. Many Americans are surprised to learn that several of the nation’s founding fathers would not be considered mainline Christians.

Thomas Jefferson was a deist, believing that while God created the universe, he was not involved with the “day to day” occurrences. Benjamin Franklin was a deist and John Adams, a Unitarian. The Unitarians believed that we were in search of truth and needed to remain free to do so. God created us with freedom to think and freedom to choose. How then, does God remain sovereign over his creation? This study will address God’s word on that subject.

Read Isaiah 46:8-13.

1. How does this passage describe God’s involvement with his creation?

2. What is God’s purpose for his action?

Read Isaiah 55:8-13.

3. Why has God given us his word? (vv. 8-9)

4. What will God’s word accomplish? (v. 11)

5. How would you use these verses to explain to someone why it is important to know and study God’s word?

Read Acts 17:22-28. Paul spoke to the philosophers and teachers of Athens at the meeting of the Areopagus. This was an opportunity to share the gospel with them, many of them hearing it for the first time.

6. What does Paul want the Greek and Roman audience to understand about God?

7. What do these verses say about God’s involvement with his creation?

8. Read Matthew 6:9-10. Jesus taught his disciples how to pray. For what does Jesus want his disciples to acknowledge and praise God for?

9. Read Matthew 6:28-34. What hinders us from believing that God is “involved” in our lives? How does Jesus teach his followers to take notice of God’s sovereignty?

10. Read Colossians 1:15-20. How does this passage about Jesus reveal God’s perfect and loving concern for all of creation?

“Nothing that is attempted in opposition to God can ever be successful.” John Calvin

Scriptures

Isaiah 46:8-13

⁸ “Remember this, keep it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels. ⁹ Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other;   I am God, and there is none like me.

¹⁰ I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’ ¹¹ From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that I will do. ¹² Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are now far from my righteousness. ¹³ I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed. I will grant salvation to Zion, my splendor to Israel.

Isaiah 55:8-13

⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. ⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. ¹⁰ As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it  without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, ¹¹ so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

¹² You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

¹³ Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.”

Acts 17:22-28

²² Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. ²³ For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

²⁴ “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. ²⁵ And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. ²⁶ From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. ²⁷ God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ²⁸ ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

Matthew 6:9-10

⁹ “This, then, is how you should pray:  “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, ¹⁰ your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Matthew 6:28-34

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Colossians 1:15-20

¹⁵ The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. ¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.