Reflecting on God’s Sovereignty
I normally write about psychology or human behavior. For my regular readers, I want to give you a heads-up that this one is different.
This article is centered around Bible verses, God, and me working through a topic that’s been on my mind since it came up. You’re probably thinking, “Wait… we haven’t heard from you in almost six months and this is the direction you’re going?” Fair question. And the answer is: yes. Bold choice, I know (hehe). Life update will come later but for now, if this isn’t your thing, no worries at all; just catch me in the next article. Although… who’s to say I won’t keep going in this direction for a bit?
This weekend, a discussion came up about whether God is sovereign in both Heaven and Earth or only in Heaven. Two perspectives were shared.
One perspective is that God is sovereign over both heaven and earth. In this view, nothing ultimately exists outside of God’s authority, control, or permission. From this perspective, God’s sovereignty means that although His children make real choices, nothing ultimately escapes His ability to accomplish His purpose.
The second perspective focuses on the idea that God gave us, His children, dominion over the earth. This is the authority and responsibility to govern, by exercising stewardship over His creation. This includes caring for the earth, governing wisely, and being accountable for the decisions we make in the sphere of influence He has given us. Which means that what we see in the world, reflect how God’s children fulfill, or fail to fulfill, this responsibility.
Personally, I fall in the camp that believes God is sovereign above all—both heaven and earth. At the same time, the conversation raised several questions for me that sent me into this deep-dive:
Where does God’s sovereignty begin and end, if it has boundaries at all?
What does sovereignty truly mean in the spiritual and biblical sense?
Why is the idea of God’s sovereignty something that feels so important for me to understand?
During this discussion, I realized that in order to speak confidently about God’s sovereignty, I first needed to understand the word fully. All I could articulate at the time was… ain’t no way God ain’t Sovereign bruh.
Definition of Sovereignty
Easton’s Bible Dictionary defines God’s sovereignty as: “God’s absolute right and authority to rule over all that He has created and to accomplish His purpose according to His will.”
Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology defines it as: “God’s complete control, authority, and freedom to act according to His own purpose throughout creation.”
Biblical Language of Sovereignty
Psalm 103:19 says, “The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all. “According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (H4438), the word “kingdom” in Hebrew is Malkuth, pronounced mal-kooth, and it means royal dominion or the reign of a king.
Matthew 28:18 says, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” According to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon (G2962), the word “Lord” in Greek is Kyrios, pronounced koo-ree-os, and it means one who possesses supreme authority. From the aforementioned source, (G1849), the word “authority” in Greek is Exousia, pronounced ex-oo-see-ah, and it means jurisdiction.
The past six months… scratch that — the past year, haha! Life has felt overwhelming. And yet, through all of it, I’ve anchored myself in one unshakable truth: God has “royal dominion” over my life. It’s active, it’s present, and it’s not limited by my own sight or understanding.
Whenever I look back, I always notice the ways He moved in moments I didn’t even realize. The times He quietly provided stability in places; I honestly hadn’t even asked Him to. His authority reached far beyond what my childlike eyes could see. When life felt chaotic, when my perfect plans crumbled, or when the battles I fought just seemed impossible, I still knew He had the power to intervene, to provide, to protect… or, honestly, the one we don’t like to talk about, the power to do nothing at all. But who am I to question His plan? I am His clay, He is the potter, and I am the work of His Hand (Isaiah 64:8).
So, what do I do in the moments where He hasn’t clearly interceded? Do I still humble myself, pray, and seek His face (2 Chronicles 7:14)? Yes. Even when doubt creeps in, the fear becomes chronic, or the pain begins to echo louder than I can handle… He still “possesses supreme authority” over my life. I’m reminded of when Paul was beaten and thrown into prison (Acts 16). While experiencing extreme suffering and uncertainty, he prayed and trusted in God, even when it seemed nothing was changing. Yet God was moving, but on His own timing. And it’s in that truth that I find a quiet, resilient strength: a reminder that even when I don’t understand, His “reign as King and Lord” is not limited to what I can see or constrained by the timing I set.
There are experiences from my early years that I’ve healed from, but in that process, I also had to accept something difficult: Christ still had “jurisdiction” over what happened. Even when I walked through things that could only be described as cruel, His “absolute right and authority over all things” never wavered (Colossians 1:16-17). That belief being challenged is what created this tension for me. It brought back questions I had once wrestled with but hadn’t thought about in a long time—how can God be sovereign and good, yet under His reign terrible things still happen? But even that question pushes me to another one: why do we try to pick and choose when God’s sovereignty applies? We prefer to give God credit for the good yet hesitate to acknowledge that He is also the same God who said, “I form the light, and create darkness… I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things” (Isaiah 45:7).
We watch the consequences of human choices, see innocent people suffer, and at times experience that cruelty ourselves; so, it’s natural for the question to come up, is this God… or is this us? The hard truth, I believe, is that it’s both. God reigns over all, yet He has also given humanity dominion (Genesis 1:26).
But this is where the complexity comes in, because dominion is not the same as sovereignty. God alone is sovereign. Yet with dominion, our choices don’t exist in isolation.
Sometimes decisions require two people. Sometimes those in positions of authority make choices that alter the course of other people’s lives without them even realizing that someone else has made a decision about their future. And sometimes our own choices collide with the choices of others, creating consequences we never could’ve anticipated. There are even moments when someone’s dominion over themselves becomes the very thing they use to take free will away from someone else.
In a world where every person carries a measure of self-authority, but only some understand the weight of that God-entrusted responsibility, suffering becomes almost inevitable. And of course, God grieves with us. He mourns every one of His children when they suffer. After just writing that sentence, I realize that what I would also argue that God’s sovereignty is the very thing that establishes accountability – it doesn’t take it away. The choices we make and the ways we impact the lives of others don’t go unnoticed by God. Christ Himself said, “For every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36). And the apostle Paul reminded believers that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).
And the reason God alone has the right to judge is because He alone is sovereign over Heaven and Earth. If He wasn’t sovereign over Earth, then how could He caste judgment for actions committed in a place where He had no authority? Judgment belongs to Him precisely because all authority belongs to Him and regardless of what our lips might say, we know that He sees every motive, every action, and every hidden thing. Our dominion gives us the ability to choose, but His sovereignty also ensures that justice ultimately rests in His hands (Ecclesiastes 12:14).
Thinking out loud, I believe God’s sovereignty and our dominion coexist. He never relinquishes ultimate control, even when the world feels chaotic. Even in the darkest moments—war, injustice, loss—He is still able to redeem, restore, and bring purpose to what feels utterly purposeless. But that’s easier to say when you’re not the one suffering, isn’t it? When I think back to moments I would never want to relive, I can’t imagine how I would have responded if someone told me that what I was experiencing had a purpose. Even now, I feel my jaw tighten as I write this. But if I truly believe that God is sovereign—and I do—then nothing, absolutely nothing, exists outside of His reach (Daniel 4:35).
And sometimes it’s through suffering that lives are refined, hearts reshaped, and faith is deepened—just as silver is purified by fire (1 Peter 1:6-7) and branches are pruned to bear more fruit (John 15:2). Those who rise from those seasons often emerge more compassionate, more aware of God’s presence, and more dependent on Him than they ever were before. And doesn’t that bring Him glory? Imagine suffering and still saying that God is good? Isn’t that what radical faith looks like? Isn’t that kind of unexplainable love, belief, reverence, and honor for Christ’s sacrifice the very thing that softens even the hardest hearts when they hear our testimonies? I don’t have all the answers. But where I’m at now, is this…