The reign of God

“The LORD reigns!” 1 Chronicles 16.31
 
To say that the Lord reigns is to acknowledge that everything that goes on in this world and in our lives is happening within God’s arena. It does not mean that he has caused everything, or that he approves of all that happens under his reign, but it does change everything.
 
One implication of the reign of God is that he has an opinion about what happens on earth. Many times, for example, Jesus spoke about justice: Matthew 12.18-21 quotes Isaiah’s vision that links the ministry of the Messiah to the bringing about of justice; and at the beginning of Luke 18 the parable about persistence speaks of God wanting to bring about justice on earth. There are many things happening in this world, or to us, that Jesus sees as unjust. His mission was to bring about justice, and these things bother him; he is concerned about the injustice of them.
 
It is a wonderful thing to sit before the Lord and bring to him the particular circumstances of the world that concern us, or bring to him the circumstances of our lives that weigh us down, and to seek his view about them. What does he think of these events? As you ponder these things before God, perhaps there are emotions stirring within you that are actually his emotions. Begin to feel his heart.

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