Sovereign Lord

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

SOVEREIGN LORD

Luke 2:25-32

25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: 29 "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. 30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared in the sight of all people, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel."

NIV

Having focused on the character of Simeon, seeing him as righteous and devout. Noting he was filled with the Spirit and followed the Spirits leading and learning all that as a life lesson, we now should turn our attention to his words. To start out with we could spent many hours contemplating just those two words, “Sovereign Lord”. When we pray for God to do this or do that, are we praying according to the will of God? Jesus said that if we ask him, whatever we ask in his name, he will do it. How is this balanced with his being Sovereign? The fact is that he is Sovereign and he has decided that we can ask anything in the name of Jesus. We also have the words of John in his first letter, telling us that if we ask according to the will of God, he will hear us and whatever we ask we know that we will have what we ask of him. So coming back to the sovereignty of God, we have to know that because he is sovereign his will is to allow us to ask for anything in the name of Jesus, but at the same time we need to be cognizant of his will. That may sound a little confusing, and some might see his sovereignty as having complete control over everything, and as so, there is really no reason to pray at all for anything, especially the salvation of another, but God wants us to ask him, and because he is sovereign, we should obey him and ask. Again we could spend hours discussing that concept of his sovereignty, in fact we could write a book in just those two words. We might also consider the fact that Simeon lived with a purpose, a promise he had from God. He had been promised he would see the salvation of the Lord which he indeed saw when he looked upon Jesus. Simeon knew Jesus was the Messiah, the promised Christ. He was at total peace in his spirit. This is the case with every soul that looks upon Jesus. When we see the truth, the truth of Jesus, and we accept him as our Christ, as our redeemer, we are at peace with God. That means we are no longer objects of his wrath, but rather we have the right to be called children of God. This should give us great peace within our being. That includes freedom from all anxiety, all fear, all unrest, for we are at peace with the sovereign Lord. He has prepared a way for us to be redeemed, he has prepared a way for us to be free of death. He has prepared the only way for us by sending Jesus as a light onto our path, which leads to God. Praise you oh sovereign Lord. Thank you sovereign God for shining the light of salvation upon me.