What does it mean that God is "sovereign"? (Part 1)

God's Sovereignty Defined

At the beginning of the statement in my personal confession of faith concerning God, I write:

I believe that there is only one God (Deut 6:4). God is revealed as the Sovereign Creator and Sustainer of all things (Gen 1:1; Acts 17:24-28; Rom 1:18-25),

In addition to the passages cited above, God's sovereignty is seen in verses such as Psalm 33:11, Ephesians 1:11, and Romans 9:14-18.

When thinking about what it means that God is sovereign, I think that I tend to over-simplify and say, "God's sovereignty means that God is in control." Researching what the Bible says about God's sovereignty, Dr. Anees Zaka expands this definition significantly, writing in his book, Ten Steps In Witnessing to Muslims: "'Sovereignty' indicates ownership, authority, and control."

These concepts are, I think, tied to the roles of God in relationship to the universe, mentioned above: God is the Creator and Sustainer of all things; because He created everything, He owns everything and has absolute authority to order everything in accordance with His will, and because He sustains everything (nothing having independent existence apart from Him), He exercises control over everything.