In a Dark, Dark Room

Does anyone else remember that book from their childhood? Scared the pants off me in first grade, particularly the story about the girl with the ribbon around her neck. Yet for some reason I read it a lot.

Anyway, that is totally not the point of this post. Just a little throwback. 

I had a great "Jesus time" last week. (The gals in my small group and I decided to call it that instead of "quiet time" because we feel like "quiet time" strongly implicates that we have a designated 1-2 hour in-depth, uninterrupted, revelation-packed, life-changing encounter with God. You know, like all mothers of small children do on a daily basis.) Here is the scripture that grabbed me: 

From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries. His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him-though he is not far from any one of us. Acts 17:26-27

For a little context, this is the part in Acts where Paul is speaking to the council in Athens about their "Unknown God". Paul says he knows who this God is, and proceeds to explain who God is and to share the Good News with the Athenians. 

I have had some really, really dark days in the past year or so. Like...really dark. These verses jumped off the page at me for a couple of reasons. 

1. "He (God) decided beforehand when they (the nations) should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries."

So, without getting into the subject of predestination (because that is NOT my point here), what I see is that God had a plan for the people. He determined their rise and fall, and their boundaries. 

Main point: God is sovereign. 

So, related to my dark days, wouldn't that mean that God totally knew they were coming? Yep. Did he maybe even decide they would happen? Yep. Did he determine the context and details in which they would happen? You betcha.