Is God Really In Control?

"God's providence is His constant care for and His absolute rule over all His creation for His own glory and the good of His people. Again, note the absolute terms: constant care, absolute rule, all creation. Nothing, not even the smallest virus escapes His care and control.
But notice also the twofold objective of God's providence: His own glory and the good of His people. These two objectives never work against each other; they are always in harmony. God never pursues His glory at the expense of the good of His people, nor does He ever seek our good at the expense of His glory. He has designed His external purpose so that His glory and our good are inextricably bound together. What comfort and encouragement this should be to us!"

"The providence of God is not a now-and-then operation, as though God were watching from a distance, constantly surprised by accidents, darting in once in a while to fix things after the fact, regularly frustrated by His unruly and out-of-control creation."

"He never permits [people] to act contrary to His sovereign will, which remains incomprehensible to us"

"No one can straighten what He has made crooked or make crooked what He has made straight."

"Did another driver go through a red light, strike your car and send you to the hospital with multiple fractures? Did a physician fail to detect your cancer in its early stages, when it would have been treatable? Did you end up with an incompetent instructor in a very important course in college, or an inept supervisor that blocked your career in business? All of these circumstances are under the controlling hand of our sovereign God, who is working them out in our lives for our good."

"To believe in the sovereignty of God when we do not see His direct intervention - when God is, so to speak, working entirely behind the scenes through ordinary circumstances and ordinary actions of people - is even more important, because that is the way God usually works."

"The sovereignty of God is often questioned because man does not understand what God is doing. And, because He does not at as we think He should, we conclude He cannot act for our best."

"Even in this invisible war, God is still sovereign."

"But what should distinguish the suffering of believers from unbelievers is the confidence that our suffering is under the control of an all-powerful and all-loving God; our suffering has meaning and purpose in God's eternal plan, and He brings or allows into our lives only what he for His glory and our good."

Jerry Bridges