From the biography of Dr. Kornelis Sietsma
Not an either-or, but a both-and.
Not: God directs my life and God controls everything, so I can do nothing.
And much less: I can and must work and bear my responsibility, so God does not control my life; God only intervenes where I can’t go on.
But: God is the Sovereign, the All-powerful, the Free and Mighty, the only Decisive One. I am human, created by Him and called by Him and taken into service by Him; so I work under His supreme authority, completely dependent and completely supported, and thus completely responsible and thus completely active.
If I could separate myself from God for a moment in the natural world, I would not exist; and if I did not go on, it would still go on, for He rules all things.
If I could separate myself from God for a moment in the spiritual realm, I would not exist, neither before God’s judgment, nor in the life according to the spirit. For I have been called into existence and held by Him, I work and believe and confess and am what I am.
And what I am and do and will and can and must is not a limitation of God’s sovereignty, but a glorification of it, for He is the source of my sense and life.
This is an enormous inspiration to work, to work in daily life with its many complexities, objections and difficulties. For this life is not sovereign and can therefore never dominate me, crush me and make my work meaningless. For the Lord God, who is the Lord of all my life, gives meaning to my work.
And at the same time this life is not a mechanistic, machine-like life without coherence, logical flow and fruitful28 activity of people. This life, in God’s hand, is life working and struggling and hastening towards the end.
In this life, the course and the end are not determined by the opposing and destructive factors, but beginning and progress and end are all placed in the service of God, even all that which I regret and mourn
This is also an enormous power for calm, for peace, for certainty.
For in the midst of all the turmoil and twists and turns of human life, to which I am bound by a thousand ties, I am still carried by the hand of God.
That does not mean that events in the world cannot take from me what I want, or bring about what I would like to avoid. But whatever happens to me, comes from the hand of God, and not from people who are independent of and separate from God.
This does not mean that in life’s events I am just under God’s total control, and thus lack independence, but much more that in everything I am watched over and guided by the Lord as His beloved child, as His special property, regarded and cared for with His favor and in His grace, for Christ’s sake.
Even in times like ours, especially in times like ours, this sovereignty of God still governs human activity, (though this doesn’t free them from responsibility). What a source of indescribable comfort and support.
This is also an enormous inspiration to work on the things of God’s Kingdom in the spiritual world, where I (in accordance with God’s commands) cooperate in the enduring, ruling, continuing and triumphing in the world.
Here again we have two sides. So that I pray my prayers and speak my words and do my deeds with great joy, so that my working and watching, my building and caring, is engaged and included in God’s work (still with its own work and value), because it leads to the fulfilment of His ends and purposes.
And so I view the course of my life with peace and confidence, trusting in the knowledge that in the end only the Kingdom of God remains; and thus, against all appearances, my standing in the service of God is a standing on the side of victory, as Christ has already won the victory, and history serves no other purpose than to work out and bring to completion this victory.
And finally I stand in my place for all time and eternity, grounded in God’s faithfulness and God’s certainties, with all that is in me and around me. And nothing , not even my own errors and mistakes, can take that away, least of all the violent acts of the evil one and of all who serve him.
While I, in all these things, always actively and responsibly and with great joy in faith and love, struggle against sin, until I am perfected by Him, who teaches me and makes me work and thus gives me the temporal and eternal salvation of being a co-worker of God towards the perfection of my joy, namely of the joy of my King and Christ.
From Him and through Him and to Him are all things, even the responsibility of man and his conscious and active life in all facets and relationships.
To Him be the glory in Christ Jesus for all eternity. Amen.