So there's going to be, you know this already, there's going to be plenty of opportunities to fret. There's going to be plenty of opportunities to worry. There's going to be plenty of opportunities to be, feel like anyway, you're being overcome with stress. This is the end of what you know to be a pretty tense election cycle where both parties really are warning that we're about to face the end of democracy. Now, we know how marketing and media works and all that, but that's the threat. That's the messaging. The other reality is we're living right now in an economy that's in decline, borders that are not secure, moral standards that are really plummeting, and we have academic elites that cannot explain the difference between a man and a woman. And so whenever I say, you know, we're hearing both parties say we're at the end of democracy and we kind of say that with tongue in cheek in some sense, the reality is there are plenty of things for us to be concerned about. To say that, you know, at this point you're too blessed to be stressed and it's silly to think that you should, you know, be concerned about anything is just silly. There's plenty of things that we ought to be concerned about. As far as other things that weigh heavy on us and things that are thrown out, you know, people, as far as suspicions go, they're at an all-time high when it comes to people being suspicious of cheating or election fraud, which is higher than it's ever been. And then to top it all off, Almost everybody in this sanctuary has access to both a smartphone and a smart TV where you are constantly getting breaking news and special alerts by every media channel you could come up with who is working to drive their ratings up and they're using your fears and your anxieties in order to do it. So it's easy for us to get swept away. It's easy for us, and every four years we have to battle this, but it's easy for us to believe that right now our lives are taking place in the midst of an unfolding political drama that will determine our future for better or for worse. Did you know that's a lie? It really is. It's a lie. Now, I'm not saying that politics isn't part of the greater drama that's unfolding that your life is involved in. But brothers and sisters, if we're not careful, we'll think that the great I am resides in Washington. Not in necessarily one person or one office, but we'll be so consumed with what seems to be the most important and the most determinative factors in the nation that we will forget some very important things that we ought to keep in mind. So with this in mind, I want to give us four things this morning and this afternoon. I want to give you four things to remember on election day. Four things to remember on election day, and it's not going to hurt if you remember them leading up to election day. OK, and what we want to do is the opposite of Matthew 1322. So Matthew 1322, as Jesus is explaining the parable of the sower, he says this, that he that received the seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word and the care or the anxiety of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becomes unfruitful. So this is the thorny ground. The word falls, the individual hears it, but it's choked out. It's not fruitful because it's overcome by the anxieties of the world, the deceitfulness of riches and so forth. Well, the prayer this morning is that the Word of God would choke out the deceitfulness of the anxieties that the world continues to rain down on us constantly. The reality is, is that biblically speaking, what we want to do is use God's word as a lens to see what is going on around us so that we can frame it in the way that God would have us to frame it. So I want to give us four things that we should try to meditate on as we think about this coming week. And the key word in that is meditation. meditation. One of the things that's so difficult about what I just said earlier about having a smartphone and a smart TV is that you are forced to meditate on all the messaging that's coming your way. It's all you hear. And you're constantly massaging your heart and mind with that, whether you like it or not, if you're accessing that kind of thing. So what we want to do is we want to do the opposite of that. We want the Word of God to be what's informing us, what's massaging our hearts and our minds. So four things. Number one, turn to Psalm 24, please. Psalm 24. In Psalm 24, verse one, David says, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. First thing, you could put this in whatever order you like, but as far as the message is concerned, first thing for you to remember on election day is that the earth and everything in it belongs to God. The earth and everything in it belongs to God. Now, there's a few reasons why we ought to remember this, but primarily the reason why I want to start with this is just to give you a reminder and to give me a reminder. None of this belongs to me. None of this is mine. If we're not careful, we'll think people are messing us up. We'll think that what is supposed to be ours is being taken away. All this stuff belongs to God. Anything that you have, anything that I have, it's borrowed. And the reason that we have it is because of God's goodness and God's mercy, but we certainly are not entitled to it. It belongs to God. It's His. Psalm 89 would remind us of the same thing. Psalm 89. As a matter of fact, this is one of those things that would be just interesting if you wanted to do a search and see how many times this particular truth is brought up in Scripture. Psalm 89, verse 11. The heavens are thine. The earth also is thine. As for the world and the fullness thereof, thou hast founded them. We're living in God's world. It belongs to Him. Now, you could probably guess at some point in the message we're going to be talking about God's sovereignty. But one of the reasons I want to start with this is that if the world and everything in it belongs to God, then God has the right to do whatever He wants to do with it. And we don't really have to guess about what that is. God is ultimately doing what is good and glorifying to Him. But again, we have to begin here. We're living in His world. It belongs to Him. You don't have to turn here. Deuteronomy 10.14 would say it this way, that the heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to God. You perhaps are familiar with David's prayer in 1 Chronicles 29. 1 Chronicles 29. In 1 Chronicles 29, in verse 11, David says, Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from Thee, and Thou reignest over all, and in Thine hand is power and might, and in Thine hand is to make great and to give strength unto all." Lord, yours is the greatness. All that's in the heavens, all that's in the earth, it belongs to you. A couple of implications. Implication number one, we said if we're not careful, we'll believe that we're living in the middle of a political drama that's going to determine our future for the better or for the worse. No, this is God's world. This is His unfolding drama. This is His story. History belongs to Him. He's the one from beginning to end that has declared what will come to pass. It's His glory that's being put on display. It's His will that's being done. He's decreed it from before the foundation of the world. You're not living in a political drama. You're not living in a social drama. You're not living in any sort of drama that's outside of what God is unfolding in the world that belongs to him through the inhabitants that belong to him. This is God's world. And we need to keep that in mind. Second implication, and this is close to it. At times, if we're not careful, we think about God's providence as if His hand is intervening in our world. Not so. God is not intervening in our world. He has placed us in His world that was created for His glory and His purposes. Brothers and sisters, I will admit, this is a very fundamental and elementary point when it comes to understanding God and understanding the world. But if we're not careful, this is a very easy point that gets lost. We forget it. This world was never about us. God did not create you so that you could be put in the middle. And have center stage. This is. His world. Everything in it, including us, we belong to him for his glory and for his. Purposes. That's the first thing to remember. Second. You knew we were headed here. Second thing to remember on Election Day. God is sovereign. God is sovereign. In Psalm 62. Psalm 62, in verse 11, the psalmist says, God hath spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. What do we mean when we say God is sovereign? The end of verse 11 is a pretty good definition. What we mean is this. Power belongs to the Lord. God is ruling and he is reigning over all. We'll get here with some passages, but you know this one already. God's will is being done among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. There's none who can stay His hand and say unto Him, what doest thou? God is in control. He's sovereign. Psalm 115, Psalm 115.3, a classic verse for God's sovereignty tells us that our God is in the heavens and He has done whatsoever He is pleased. That's every minute of every day. That's happening today. That'll be happening tomorrow. and that'll be happening on election day, and how many ever days after that that they're still counting votes? God is in the heavens and He's doing whatsoever He's pleased. Nothing happens outside of God's prerogative, outside of God's control. Now, sometimes people wonder, well, how sovereign? When we talk about God's sovereignty, just how sovereign is God? Well, if we have to ask how sovereign someone is, that undermines the whole understanding of sovereign and sovereignty. You can't be all powerful with a limit to your power. You can't be almighty with a limit to your mind. There are no limits to God's sovereignty. You know this already. We've talked about this before. That doesn't make God the author of sin. But it certainly doesn't leave God helpless. God's sovereignty is really so intertwined, maybe would be the right way to say it. There are so many roots and avenues as to how God's sovereignty works, and it works its way out in the world that we live in that we could not trace His hand if we had to. Again, Daniel, we just read this, but it's worth It's worth reading again, or at least I try to quote it. It's worth saying again. In Daniel 4. Daniel 4.34-35. Nebuchadnezzar at the end of his days lifts up his eyes unto heaven, and he says, his understanding was returned, and he blessed the Most High, and he praised and honored Him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? No one can hold back God's hand and say, what are you doing? Now, in this particular book, and it wasn't that long ago that we were in Daniel, it's pretty meaningful to see that a pagan king is the one who was brought to this knowledge. Babylonians had taken Israel or Judah into captivity. Nebuchadnezzar, who thought that he was the most powerful man in the world, and at that time, as far as on earth he was, was brought so low and humiliated by the hand of God until he recognized this reality about who God was. You know, whenever we see the storyline of Scripture unfold, we see God's sovereign purposes all over the place. I've been teaching for the last several years. I've been teaching a middle school Bible class at our homeschool co-op, and one of the things that I've loved to do with the with the kids is go through in a big picture way just the storyline of the Old Testament and the New. And just seeing how God's hand is working in that in ways that folks had no idea what He was doing, but we look back and see it. So He takes a man named Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees and says, I'm sending you off, but I'm not telling you where. And he goes. And Abraham has Isaac and Isaac has Jacob and Esau. By the way, there's this promise made to Abraham that his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky and the sands of the sea. And he has one kid. At least a promise. And we see Isaac and Rachel, and their life's not that impressive, really kind of scandalous, dysfunctional. We see Jacob, not that great. He has 12 kids. They all gang up against one of them and sell them into slavery down to Egypt. The Lord raises him up to be number two to Pharaoh. And in the midst of a famine, the rest of Israel end up in Egypt for 400 years where they become slaves. That making sense to anybody? Then there's this baby born named Moses, and he's born at the same time that the Egyptians are trying to kill all the males. But God preserves him, and he grows up, and he leads God's people out of Egyptian bondage back into Canaan, except on the way, they really mess up and start walking in circles for 40 years. Then they get in there, and it's the time of the judges, and that time is characterized by, in those days, every man did what was right in their own eyes. And it ends with the people wanting to do away with God's plan and having their own king. And they choose who looks like is the best guy, but he ends up being the worst guy. And then they get the best king who has all kinds of moral failures. And then the wisest man, aside from Christ, whoever ruled, goes in a big spiral until he hands his kingdom off to two sons that split it in two. It's not long until the Assyrians come and completely destroy Israel. A little while longer, the Babylonians take Judah into captivity for 70 years. About 100 years after they're taken, they end up back in shambles. The Babylonians are brought to power, then they give it to the Persians, and then it's given to the Grecians, then it's given to the Romans, and then here's Jesus. Now isn't that a unified story that makes a whole lot of sense? It's hard to trace if you really think about the big picture of all that. It's hard to trace in our minds how do we make sense out of every little piece of that and what God was doing and how God was bringing about and unfolding His purposes. But one of the things that we know is that in the middle of all that drama, and that's a big picture, I know, there's a lot more details to be had. When we get into the New Testament, and we start to read about the incarnation of Christ coming to earth, we have this little phrase that, in the fullness of time, He came. At just the right time. All these other supporting details that were going on, that were leading to Christ coming and ushering in the kingdom of God. It almost makes you think that all these other supporting details were very minor and leading to something much bigger, which was the incarnation of Christ. I wonder if one of the reasons why we don't take as much comfort in God's sovereignty as we should is because we think we are more important than we actually are. I think that's probably it. We can look, and we've gone through this before, and see how it is that God uses different nations and how God sovereignly rules to bring about His purposes. We talked about this when we were in Daniel, but it's worth reminding you. Why would God let the Babylonians take his people into exile? Well, God was using those Babylonians. He was using them to judge Judah in their rebellion. And then the Persians come and they take over the Babylonians, and God uses the Persians to get his people back to where they were in Judah during the return. And then a young guy named Alexander the Great leads the Greek army to overtake really the known world. You already know what he did, right? What was God doing with Alexander the Great? Well, there was a unified language common coin on Greek. That would be established and that would spread throughout the known world. So that whenever God decided to pin the New Testament through his people, it would be in a language that could be read and understood. Cross the globe. And then. God uses the Romans. And all the things that Rome brought that were just really despicable and that were not good at all. God uses their roadways. You know the phrase all roads lead to Rome. They established the roadways that the 1st century church would use to evangelize and to spread the gospel throughout the world. Well, I don't know exactly what it is that God has in mind as far as providentially using whoever it is that comes into office next in the United States of America. But I know this. God's intentions. Are far bigger than me and you. what He has in mind, and His unfolding purposes. We are a part of that. I don't want to pretend as if God is just not thinking about us at all. He does consider us. He does care for us. But we're not the main show. In Proverbs 16, we're thinking about God's sovereignty. In Proverbs 16, verse 33, it says, "...the lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord." Now, if we were to To explain this in modern illustrations, we would say you roll the dice on the ground, but the Lord controls the result. I mean, that's what is cast the lot in the lap and the disposing thereof is the Lord. There is no chance. Nothing happens by chance. There's nothing that's, again, outside of God's will. There's nothing that's outside of God's sovereignty. As we're thinking about elections and we're thinking about possible interferences and possible cheatings and possible this and possible that, there is nothing that takes place outside of the sovereign hand of God. Psalm 2 would also speak to this. Look in Psalm 2. I think there's a good word there for us, especially as we try to think about things that are particularly troubling. We hear a lot about conspiracies and conspiracy theories It's this reality that there are people conspiring behind the scenes, doing things in dark rooms and in ways that you and I could never get ahead of. No doubt that's happening. And the reason I say that is because there's no doubt that has always been happening. That's nothing new. Look in Psalm 2, 1-4. Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together." Now, the little phrase, set themselves, that's set themselves against. And the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. We have the kings of the earth. We have the rulers of the earth, and they've come together to take counsel. They've come together to conspire, to break the bands, to get out from under the authority of God's anointed. And in verse four, it says, he that sitteth in the heavens, he shall laugh and the Lord shall have them in derision. Now, I want to draw a couple of things from this, maybe even a few other verses. The first thing is, I think is obvious, but it's God is sovereign over the wicked who conspire against Him. God is sovereign over those who would conspire against Him. The other thing I would, you know this already, but just a reminder, There are plenty of things we do not know. Matter of fact, I'd go so far as to say there's plenty of things we really don't need to know. I mean, it would do us no good to know them. But there's plenty of things we don't know. But God knows every single plot that the wicked have ever come up with. You see, I say there's plenty of things we don't need to know just from the standpoint of even if you knew him, you couldn't do a thing about him. Well, God knows and he can do things about it. Hebrews chapter four talks about the word of God. In verse 12, you're familiar with this. this verse, it says, for the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And then verse 13, he adds this. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight. but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." There are no secrets with God. There's nothing hidden with God. It says all things are open, all things are exposed. with him. Daniel would say this. You don't have to turn here, but in Daniel Chapter 2 verse 22 concerning God, he says that not only does God know these things, but God reveals. And knows what's done in darkness. He sees those things. Not only does he see him, but. He reveals them and Ezekiel 11 five. He says that the Lord knows the things that come into your mind. Now, that's not just mine and yours. It's not talking about how God relates to His people. It's just talking about what God knows in general. God knows your thoughts. He knows your actions. He knows your plans. And then in Numbers 32, verse 23, He says, you be sure of this, your sins will find you out. We don't just take comfort in the fact that God happens to know a few things. Not only does God sovereignly know, but He also sovereignly exposes and judges those things in His own timing. You see, sometimes we can get ourselves all worked up because we're trying to do something. about things we can't do anything about. Now, don't misunderstand me. I think on Tuesday, if you haven't already, you ought to go to the polls and you ought to vote. I mean, I think we are privileged to live in a nation where we get to do that. You ought to go do it. You ought to go pray for God's mercy and for God's blessing. And then we probably ought to spend a lot more time praying that God would bless us to entrust ourselves to Him who does right. He knows. He knows the plots of the wicked. He knows their intentions. And in His timing, He acts. Lamentations 3, another passage that would speak to God's sovereignty. particularly God's sovereignty in disappointing circumstances. I don't know what the circumstances we're going to be in are. Lamentations 3. Verses 37-41. Jeremiah says, and it cometh to pass when the Lord commandeth it not. Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good, that is, both calamities and good. Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens." Let me just stop there. We could keep going, but we'll stop for now. A couple of questions really from this passage out of verses 37 and 38. Who is it that takes responsibility for bringing about good and calamity or good and evil in the passage? And it's very clear it's God. I mean, Jeremiah asked in verse 37, who is he that commands something that comes to pass when the Lord has not commanded it? That's a rhetorical question. The answer is nobody. You can't do anything outside of God's will. You cannot thwart His purposes. Same thing that Daniel said. You cannot hold back His hand and say, what are you doing? But then he goes on and gives us at least a couple of applications. Helps, maybe. If it's from the hand of God, then verse 39, Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Now, you know, in Lamentation, the book is written after the Babylonians had come and just decimated Judah. Well, I certainly don't think there are parallels between Israel and the U.S., but I do think there are parallels between, and not just us, but it could be anybody, do we have any reason to believe that God might be judging our nation? Does He have any reason to do that? Well, of course He does. I mean, if righteousness exalts a nation, we're in trouble. Some people wonder, are we under judgment? I think that's a question that was long answered years ago. Of course we are. Of course we are. All you have to do is just look in Romans 1. And Brother Mike alluded to that this past weekend in the meeting. Of course we're under God's judgment. Now, by that I don't mean we're under some sort of an irreversible spiral that's going to lead in the next few years to our decimation. I don't know if that's the case or not. I hope God will be merciful. My prayer is that He will. but the text gets at where we tend to be. If God is sovereignly bringing these things to pass, and if we can clearly look at the nation that we live in and say, of course, there's reason for God to judge, then the text asks, then why does a living man complain? A man for the punishment of his sin. And then he gives us something we ought to be doing. Verse 40, let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. You know, sometimes we can get very, very distracted in thinking that the problem with this country is a certain political party. If you want to know, I'll just give an illustration and then you can apply it. GK Chesterton was asked a question in response to an article he had written in a paper one time. And the question was this, what is the problem? What is the biggest problem in the world today? And his answer was, it's me. It's my heart. It's my sin. It's my own coldness and indifference toward God. It's my rebellion. It's my lack of thankfulness and my lack of love and my lack of commitment to God and to His kingdom. It's me. Well, let us search our own hearts and try our own ways. Could it be? that however things go, God wants us or God wants to get our attention and He wants it to be focused here, not out there somewhere. Now, that being said, we live in a world full of some crazy loons and you'll never, ever be charged with anything that they've done. But one of these days you're going to have to stand before God and you're not going to be able to say. Well, if it wasn't for the Democrats. Or if it wasn't for the Republicans, or if it wasn't for the libertarians, or if it wasn't for the academic elites, or if it wasn't for him, we could just keep going and going and going and going. And God's going to say. That's not why you did that. That's not why you weren't what you should have been. That's not why your zeal was not what it should have been. That's not why your commitment is not what it should have been. That's not why you didn't live out the kind of relationships you were supposed to be living out in the church that I placed you in. That's not why those things didn't happen. You did that all by yourself. Lamentations says, when God's providence gets our attention, we ought to be searching our own hearts and figuring out what it is he's trying to expose in me. So number one, you need to remember the earth and everything in it belongs to God. Number two, we need to remember God is sovereign. And then number three, this will be the last one for this morning. We need to remember that in God's sovereignty, that God sovereignly ordains, raises up, sustains, removes and replaces human authorities for His own purposes. Now, we've talked about that a little bit, but just to get very specific. God is actively involved in raising up and taking down world leaders. Look in 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel 2. Now, in 1 Samuel 2, starting in verse 6, there's a series of things that are said about God and about what God does. And so it says in verse 6, "...the Lord killeth, and the Lord maketh alive. He bringeth down to the grave, and He bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich. He bringeth low, and He lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and He hath set the world upon them." Get that again in verse 8. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill to set them among princes. and to make them inherit the throne. You know, that really is, I mean, that verse 8, you know, the other passages we'll look at as it relates to this, this really is, in many ways, the only explanation we can get for some of these things. Sometimes we can look at candidates and say, how in the world did they get there? Right? I mean, it's a legitimate question. How in the world did they get there? Well, this is how. This is how it happens. And folks say, well, you know, there are some where they've just completely bypassed the democratic process and they've done this and they've done that. Well, they haven't bypassed God's sovereignty in that. They haven't gotten around His will. They haven't gotten around His purposes. As a matter of fact, what we learn and we learn this in several instances and we see it is that God often uses the godless to raise people up for his own purposes. And Jeremiah chapter 27. Jeremiah 27. In verse 5, the Lord says, Jeremiah 27, verse 5, He says, I have made the earth the man and the beast that are upon the ground by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me. And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and the beast of the field have I given him also to serve him. And all nations shall serve him and his son and his son's son until the very time of his land come, and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of Him. And it shall come to pass that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the Lord, with the sword and with famine and with pestilence, until I have consumed them by His hand." Now, that's a weird passage. Now, I don't say weird in a bad way, but if you're trying to think humanly speaking, he says, I'm the one who's put Nebuchadnezzar in this place, and I'm the one who has decreed that those who will not submit themselves to him will be wiped out. Now, this is the same Nebuchadnezzar who would come into Judah. take the best and the brightest, and of God's people there, take the best and the brightest and do His best to make them Babylonians. Change their names, change their culture, make them ceremonially unclean, decimate Jerusalem, decimate the temple, and try to make pagans out of them all. And God says, I'm the one who's put all this under his care. I'm the one who's put this under his power. Daniel chapter 2 verse 21, Daniel tells us that God is the one who removes kings and who sets up kings. God does that. We say, wait a minute, wait a minute, election interference. Well, no, God does that. There are people who interfere with elections, no doubt that sin will be exposed and dealt with. But election interference never interferes with God's sovereign purposes. He's the one who does that. Romans 9 verse 17 reminds us. It was God. Who raised Pharaoh? To a position of authority. Pharaoh, who was so brutal to the people of Israel. In Romans 9.17, for the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up that I might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. This is the Lord taking a godless man, giving him power, putting his people under that power so that he might show or put his power on display through him. Well, we've talked about this before, but when we think about implications, here's one. There is an attitude that has continued to gain popularity. In Christian circles. That says we've got to get more active and we've got to start taking the government back for Christ. That is not consistent with the biblical understanding of God's sovereignty. You cannot take back for God what God is actively establishing. And so the question is, in light of these things, in light of the fact that the world and everything in it belongs to God, in light of the fact that God is sovereign, and in light of the fact that God sovereignly ordains and raises up and removes and replaces human authorities for His purposes. How are we supposed to respond to that? And we're going to come back this afternoon and we're going to try to answer that question. Let's pray. Father, we thank You that You have given us in Your Word realities to sustain us in times of difficulty, in times of concern, in times of worry and anxiety, in times that are stressful, in times where it's just clear things are way outside of our control. Father, we're thankful that through the power of the Holy Spirit, Your Word can bring comfort and strength and hope. We can have peace through trust. And so we pray that that's what You would do. We pray that You would bless us not just to meditate on, but to be able to lay hold of, grasp by faith. that this world and everything in it belongs to you. Pray that wouldn't just be an abstract statement, but that we would be able to lay hold of the realities of that. Same thing with your sovereignty and the extent of your sovereign hand. Father, we confess we're weak. We confess that we're frail. But we also confess that through the power of the Spirit and by faith, we are more than conquerors through Christ. And so we pray You would bless us to exercise that faith to be able to take comfort and to be sustained by the truths of Your Word and Your realities of this world. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.