The Sovereignty of God and the Stock Market

In my moments of cynicism as a soon-to-be-graduated-and-married college senior, I often grimly marvel at my "luck" to be graduating into what economists are calling "the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression."  Oh goody.  So how does that affect my chances of landing a job next year?

I have to confess, my avid following of the economic news has been becoming something of a stumbling block to my faith.  When every day's headlines bring triple-digit stock declines, job losses in the hundreds of thousands, and toppling financial and corporate giants, it is easy for the recession to seem bigger than God in my mind.  I've been feeding my mind a steady diet of doubts, and I'm beginning to reap some of the fruit of that.  Not good.

So I'm directing my attention back to the solid rock of Christ and His Word and His promises.  Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ, and so if I want more faith I need to fill my heart with visions of the omnipotent, sovereign, unchangeable, gracious, faithful God of the Bible as revealed in His Word.  Verses like Isaiah 45:7, a timely reminder of God's sovereignty in the midst of economic meltdown:

"I form the light and create darkness,

     I bring prosperity and create disaster;

I, the LORD, do all these things."

God creates housing bubbles and economic booms and Great Depressions.  The stock market rises and falls as He wants it to rise and fall.  He decrees job losses and job gains.  God is sovereign over the economy.  Repeat that truth.  God is sovereign over the economy.  And by "sovereign," I don't just mean He has the power to control all events, but that He DOES.

Do you see that as good news?  I do.  Romans 8:28 is good news, and true, because God has the sovereign muscle to back it up.  "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good."  But the promise is deeper than that.  Verse 32 makes it clear that God doesn't just use every circumstance for good; He gives every circumstance for good.  "He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?"  Connect the "all things" in verse 28 to verse 32, and suddenly you have a very, very deep promise.  God gives all things, all circumstances to you for your good.  

Now that's a promise you can take to the bank.