The Weight of the World

​Have you ever felt like the entire world around you is weighing on you? As you go day by day, the days are seemingly flying by, and it feels like nothing changes except the challenges you take on? It could be anything, really. Financial situations going off the rails, relationships falling apart, church issues, or problems at work. Whatever it may be, you may feel like everything is depending on you. I know this feeling well. I understand what it's like to hardly be able to sleep because of being stressed to the max and trusting in myself to handle everything.  
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While I was going through scripture and thinking about this, I just so happened to be in the book of Colossians. It really is encouraging to go through scripture and have God Himself minister to you with comforting words bringing things to light when you absolutely need them. As I looked at the first chapter, verse 17, I came across 6 words in it that shook me to the core.

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. - Colossians 1:17

​In this verse, we see the preeminence of God in all things. The fact that everything in all creation is after Him because He is the Creator of all. Everything, and I mean absolutely everything, in all of creation is under His control. Nothing is out of His reach and, as R.C. Sproul would say, “There is no rogue molecule." 

In this text we also see that everything that is, is held together by His power. That means that the air that you are breathing right now is because He is causing it to exist. Processes by which your body can take in that air and put oxygen into your body and keep you alive-- which, if you have ever looked into, is an immense amount of steps -- is all caused and directed by Him. The gravity that is holding you to the earth only works because He has commanded it to. The sun or the stars only shine because He has commanded them to. The trees that grow do so because He causes them to grow.

The spiritual growth you experience is because He causes the growth. The food that you eat, He has provided a way for you to get it. The fact that any of us are saved at all from the punishment we deserve as sinners is because He has provided a way.  You see, God has unmitigated and unchallengeable sovereignty over absolutely all things. This may or may not be a hard thing for you to accept. Your acceptance or non acceptance of this fact does not make it true or not true. As the old saying goes, “It's His universe not mine.” Your thoughts are not the final authority on things, His are. 

If you remember I said I found 6 words that really rocked me and made me look at this verse anew. They are “in him all things hold together.” It's what I've been driving at for most of this post. God is in control, always, and everywhere. There is no place, no time that we can escape His presence. Let's look at it this way. If you are going “through the valley” as some would describe times of hardship or sorrow, He is with you. If you have problems going on in your life, He is there. If we can say that we trust God with our eternity, how then can we not trust Him with our right now? It seems illogical because it is. Please, brothers and sisters, be encouraged by the Fact that God Is In Control at All Times. Let me leave you with a part of a Psalm that I love to read when I'm going through tough times. It's Psalm 95:1-8.

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
    let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
    let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God,
    and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
    the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it,
    and his hands formed the dry land.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
    let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice,
    do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
    as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,

Jonathan Eckel