Who is in Control?

This week I attended a lecture by a physician who is a specialist in a particular type of cancer. A woman in the audience who has this type of cancer commented during the doctor's presentation on clinical trials, that she is part of a clinical trial and was chosen for the control group which receives no treatment. She said that, since she had prayed about this, she was taking it as God's plan. The doctor replied, “Actually you were randomly selected by a computer, so unless you believe God is a big computer.......” and she just let the statement trail off.

Now, I totally understand the concept of random selection by a computer. Part of my job, in fact, is to coordinate a research project on a different type of cancer than the one that was under discussion. When I first enrolled patients in that study, a computer somewhere in the country told me what to do with each person. But the doctor was wrong when she implied that God could not be operating in this situation, because an impartial machine is in control.

True,which arm of the study a person ends up in is dependent on what the computer generates. But, suppose the person who entered this woman's data stopped to have a cup of coffee or use the bathroom or took a phone call, and the data entry was delayed by a minute or two, causing someone elsewhere to enter the data on another patient first. The computer is not in control of that. There is plenty of room for God to operate in our world in ways we never consider.

This brings me to something else I encountered this week, which may, at first, not seem to be related. There is a message floating around on the internet that we should pray for President Obama according to Psalm 109:8 Let his days be few; and let another take his office. It is very distressing to me that anyone who believes in prayer would consider saying such a thing. If this is a joke, it isn't the least bit funny. If the originator is serious, he/she is terribly misusing God's word by taking it out of context.

The apostle Paul, writing in I Timothy, says: I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone....for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

If we love God and want to honor Him, we need to be praying for President Obama, the Congress and all of the leadership of our country. We don't have to agree with them, and it is perfectly legitimate to state our opposition to policies, but personal attack is wrong. We should never get caught hoping or praying for bad things to befall anyone.

If you don't agree with someone and maybe even dislike them, you can still pray for them in a way that honors God. Here is my prayer: “I pray for President Obama and the Congress. Lord, please use them to accomplish Your purposes in this world and to bring glory to Yourself.”

I think God can and will honor this prayer. I believe that He is in control. It doesn't matter what party is in office or whether the resultant policies are to our liking. I think of the world as an enormous Rubik's cube. Only God has the wisdom and knowledge to solve it and align the pieces to bring about His plan for human history. No matter how it appears to us, He is moving the pieces into position. At some points, it will look like everything is wrong, but that is only a temporary state caused by our imperfect perspective.

When God makes the last move, all mankind will be in awe, and no one will have any choice except to acknowledge that He is in control and has been right along.