Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: power belongs to God.- Psalm 62:11

When I was young I learned to pray “thy will be done” and it unnerved me. Some things I were praying were too important to leave up to God’s will, I thought. What if God’s will for me wasn’t what I wanted? What I needed? But I was told that God’s will for me is better than whatever I’d want for myself, even if it might include some pain. So I kept praying “thy will be done” until I grew more comfortable with giving it all up to God.

It can be unnerving to realize that power does not belong to us, but power belongs to God. If power belongs to us, then things are in our control. We can make the world as we would want it, we could make our lives as we would want them. But it doesn’t take too long to realize that we are not, and cannot, be in control. All the power in the world is not enough to make our wills and whims come to fruition. Just ask the President of the United States. Every president is surprised by their own constraints.

At a time when things seem to be so out of hand, we can put our troubles and worries in God’s hands. Though we do not have the power to shape the world according to our whims, God has the power to make and destroy. But God’s power is not an arbitrary power, it is a power he always wields for the good of those who love him. (Rom. 8:28) It is a power grounded in love. And we know his love for us when we see Jesus on his cross. Even now, we are told, Jesus is trampling down his enemies and “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (1 Cor. 15:26)

It’s hard not taking matters into our own hands. But some things were never in our hands to begin with. So God asks us to lay our worries at his feet, that he may put them in his hands. In the end all power is his. “For thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.”