“Your kingdom will be restored to you as soon as you
acknowledge that Heaven rules.”
—Daniel 4:26
Heaven Rules.
No phrase pulses more frequently in my mind and heart than this one. It’s on the screensaver photo that pops up every time I look at my phone. It’s printed on the mug I use each morning for my tea. It’s featured on artwork hanging in my study. It’s engraved on a gold necklace hanging around my neck, a gift from a dear friend who is battling terminal cancer.
“Heaven rules” is a right-sizing truth—putting our view of God, our view of ourselves, and our view of our problems in proper perspective.
I love being surrounded by reminders of this simple but profound truth. It has become for me an overarching, undergirding meta-theme, foundational to how I view all of Scripture and all of
life. And over and over again, when I have found myself in tumultuous waters, it has been both an anchor and a life preserver for my soul.
A Right-Sizing Truth
By “Heaven rules,” of course, I mean “God rules.” The God of heaven rules. He rules over every tide of history, over every king and kingdom, over every activity we undertake, over every person and part of His creation. “Heaven rules” is a right-sizing truth—putting our view of God, our view of ourselves, and our view of our problems in proper perspective. It’s a truth meant to instill healthy fear within every proud heart that aims to be its own ruler and that believes we humans can determine our own direction and destiny.
That’s how Heaven’s rule corrects us, and we’re crazy to think we don’t need it. God is kind, not cruel, in reminding us who’s in charge and in doing it at whatever cost He knows is necessary to get our distracted attention. None of us really wants to find out what would happen if He weren’t in charge!
But this same truth that corrects us is also intended to comfort us. To reassure and free us. To catch us and keep us. “Heaven rules” means He is sovereign over everything that touches us, that nothing comes to us unbidden by His desire to use it for our good and for His glory and for the greater things He created us to be part of. He is ruler over every diagnosis and prognosis, over all incomes and outcomes, over the most daunting challenges as well as the most seemingly trivial details of our lives.
Comfort and Courage
This truth that is powerful enough to take down the great is also powerful enough to bear up the least of us, both in our private ordeals and as we face the world that seems to be imploding around us. We can take comfort as we walk on this earth because of our Father’s rule from heaven. Comfort and courage—for “Heaven rules” does not call for a passive acceptance of fate; it comes with the promise of grace for the battle. When we feel we just can’t withstand any more pressure, problems, or pain, the awareness of God’s rule infuses us with supernatural strength. It enables us to live with contented, cemented clarity through the chaos and the ugly fallout of a fallen world, through struggles and circumstances that make us want to run away in panic or curl up in despair. We find the courage to patiently, even joyfully, persevere in the assurance that Heaven rules.
This article was adapted from Heaven Rules by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2022). Used by Permission.
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