Ever have two seemingly opposing ideas that you knew were both true but didn’t seem to match up? On a simple scale it’s like trying to balance my desire to be healthy with my love for pizza, tacos and chocolate cookies. It’s really hard to keep those two thoughts in a way that seems to honor both. It’s like there’s an unhealthy tension that exists that is almost insurmountable. We will call that the balancing act.

More life altering than the tension between dieting and a love for tacos and cookies, there is a key concept in Christianity that deals with something we call the sovereignty of God. This is the idea that God is infinite, always and everywhere. He is over all things, in all things and works through all things. This is actually a really big deal that I might have to tackle in a later post by itself. But for now try to imagine everything in the world under one microscope. Imagine a being that is able to see all things around the world in one picture at the same time. That’s a pretty significantly spectacular or in this case sovereign being.

Now match that up with the idea that the same being with all that power and size is so personal that he knows your thoughts, cares, worries and fears. He wants to hear about your day and provide for you in ways that no one else can. This is the balancing act we find ourselves in with the God of the Bible.

The Bible paints the picture that God is eternal and forever and all powerful and, well sovereign. But it also gives us the demonstration that God is personal and individual and very intimate. Such a cool balancing act that we get to work with as we navigate the truth of who God really is.

Sovereignty and intimacy are two ends of the spectrum of the identity of God.

Words like creator and redeemer and advocate for humanity are concepts that speak to this idea of sovereignty. He’s called Lord of lords and King of kings. He’s referred to as everlasting and eternal. All of this speaks to the vastness of God’s power and presence in the world.

As we embrace the sovereignty of God, we are humbled and left in awe. This is a power we can hardly fathom. The reality of this size and magnitude is something so vast it’s nearly beyond comprehension.

Then as we turn the coin of God’s character over, we see words like love and Father, adoption and child of God. This leaves us even more awestruck and dumbfounded than before! How can a God who’s so massive be so in to me? How can a God who’s infinite be so intimate? How can a God who is so powerful also be so personal?

This is the paradox in which we live. This is the balancing act we much wrestle with as followers of Jesus today. God truly is sovereign in every way while also remaining intimate and personal in every way. And it’s all because he loves us. When we can accept this reality about God, we’ll be able to better understand all he’s done for us. But for now, it’s a balancing act.