GOD-PROVIDENCE
Let Him
therefore send and do what He will. By His grace, if we are His, we will face
it, bow to it, accept it, and give thanks for it. God's Providence is always
executed in the “wisest manner” possible. We are often unable to see and
understand the reasons and causes for specific events in our lives, in the
lives of others, or in the history of the world. But our lack of understanding
does not prevent us from believing God.
As a wise,
skilled pharmacist mixes medicine, our heavenly Father wisely mixes exactly the
right measure of bitter things and sweet, to do us good. Too much joy would
intoxicate us. Too much misery would drive us to despair. Too much sorrow would
crush us. Too much suffering would break our spirits. Too much pleasure would
ruin us. Too much defeat would discourage us. Too much success would puff us
up. Too much failure would keep us from doing anything. Too much criticism would
harden us. Too much praise would exalt us. Our great God knows exactly what we
need. His Providence is wisely designed and sovereignly sent for our good!
Don Fortner
All honey
would harm us; all wormwood would undo us – a composition of both is the best
way to keep our souls in a healthy constitution. It is best and most for the health of the
soul – that the warm south wind of mercy, and the cold north wind of adversity
– do both blow upon it. And though every
wind which blows, shall blow good to the saints; yet certainly their sins die
most, and their graces thrive best, when they are under the frigid, drying,
nipping north wind of calamity, as well as under the warm, nourishing south
wind of mercy and prosperity.
Thomas Brooks
The Mute Christian Under
the Smarting Rod, 1659.
No one, not
even the unredeemed, are ultimately outside the will
of God (Pr. 16:4; Rom. 9:14-18; 1 Pet. 2:7-8).
They are not forced to be lost, but choosing to reject God’s offer of
mercy does not somehow free them from the control of God. Even their rejection has been included in the
eternal plan of God. This is perhaps the
worst part of it for them. In their
attempt to be free from God by rejecting Him, even if at the cost of their own
souls, they find that there is no such thing.
The net of God’s providence includes even the vain attempt to be outside
the net.
Walter Elwell
Evangelical Dictionary of the Bible, Baker,
1996, p. 653.
There is
unquestionably a great mystery here as to how a holy God who cannot even look
upon evil (Hab. 1:13) can work His will through evil, but that He does is the
clear teaching of Scripture. If
something could get outside the will of God, it would become a god unto itself
and a rival to God. Such can never be
the case. God alone is God; there is no
other.
Walter Elwell
Evangelical Dictionary of the Bible, Baker, 1996, p. 653.
Providence,
then, is the sovereign, divine superintendence of all things, guiding them
toward their divinely predetermined end in a way that is consistent with their
created nature, all to the glory and praise of God. This divine, sovereign, benevolent control of
all things by God is the underlying premise of everything that is taught in the
Scriptures.
Walter Elwell
Evangelical Dictionary of the Bible, Baker,
1996, p. 650.
In the
infinite wisdom of the Lord of all the earth, each event falls with exact
precision into its proper place in the unfolding of His divine plan. Nothing, however small, however strange,
occurs without His ordering, or without its particular
fitness for its place in the working out of His purpose; and the end of all
shall be the manifestation of His glory, and the accumulation of His praise.
B.B. Warfield
Quoted in: TULIP, The Five Points of Calvinism in the Light of Scripture by Duane Edward Spencer, Baker, 1979, p. 15.
God’s
providence is His constant care for and His absolute rule over all His creation
for His own glory and the good of His people.
Jerry Bridges
Trusting God, 1988, p. 25. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All rights reserved.
We may say that providence is God’s
orchestrating all events and circumstances in the universe for His glory and
the good of His people (Rom. 8:28).
Jerry Bridges
The Providence of Jesus, Tabletalk, June
2008, p. 50, Used by Permission.
More secret
than diplomacy, deeper than the investigations of the wise, and mightier than
all the kingly power, is the providence of God.
Matthew, Judson Press, 1886, p. 21.
He who complains of the weather, complains
of the God who ordained the weather!
William Law
When I use
the word "providence"…I mean that wonderful, strange, mysterious, unguessable way Yahweh has of ruling His world and
sustaining His people, and His doing it, frequently, over, under, around,
through, or in spite of the most common stuff of our lives or even the bias of
our wills.
Dale Ralph Davis
1 Samuel, Christian Focus Publications, 1988,
p. 94.
Nothing
whatever, whether great or small, can happen to a believer, without God’s
ordering and permission. There is no such thing as “chance,” “luck” or
“accident” in the Christian’s journey through this world. All is arranged and
appointed by God. And all things are “working together” for the believer’s
good.
J.C. Ryle
How can all
things be worked together by God for good?
The answer is at hand. It is
because God's ultimate purpose is to make us like Christ. His goal is the complete restoration of the
image of God in His child! So great a
work demands all the resources which God finds throughout the universe, and He
ransacks the possibilities of joys and sorrows in order to reproduce in us the
character of Jesus.
Sinclair Ferguson
The Christian Life, p. 21, 1997, by
permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
The
providence of God is the way in which He governs everything wisely, first for
the glory of His own Name, and second for the ultimate blessing of His
children.
Sinclair Ferguson
A Heart for God, 1987, p. 94, by permission
Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
Trust
the past to God’s mercy, the present to God’s love and the future to God’s
providence.
Augustine
Adam the sinner
furthered the purposes of God to the same degree as Adam the righteous….What
Adam aimed to do and what Adam actually managed to do are not the same. In a different way, but in the same
degree, Adam carried forward the purpose of God. Adam’s act was sinful because he did not aim
to please God. His motive was wrong, and
God judged him for it. But God meant to
use even that evil to advance His own glory.
Tom Wells
A Vision for Missions, Permission by The Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA. p.
45.
Let me
encourage you to take those “if onlys” and draw a
circle around them. Then label the circle, “The providence of God.” The
Christian believes that God is greater than our “if onlys.”
His providential hand encompasses the whole of our lives, not just the good
days but the “bad” days too. We have the word accident in our vocabulary; He does not.
Erwin Lutzer
Taken from One Minute After You Die by Erwin Lutzer,
Moody Publishers, 1997, p. 123-124.
The
wonder of wonders to me is not just the miracle where God instantly invades and
just interrupts and violates the flow of everything, to me the greater wonder
is that God can take it all and still make it work for His will. That’s
astounding to me. The diversity of an innumerable number of events,
circumstances and attitudes that occur within the limited freedom of men and
demons and God pulls it all together to accomplish exactly what He wants done. Incredible not only to conceive that it can be done but to make it
happen. But that is precisely what God does. So that the world with what
we assume to be an almost infinite number of random choices is doing nothing
more than acting out that which is predetermined by God.
John MacArthur
The Amazing Burial of Jesus - Part 2. The article
originally appeared (http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/2400_The-Amazing-Burial-of-Jesus-Part-2)
at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by
Permission.
Depend
upon it, however, let men rebel against this truth as they will, that God has
determined the end from the beginning. He has left no screw loose in the machine, He has left nothing to chance or accident.
C.H. Spurgeon
A Feast for Faith, Isaiah. 28:29.
Everything
that has moved or shall move in heaven, and earth, and hell, has been, is, and
shall be according to the counsel and foreknowledge of God, fulfilling a holy,
just, wise and unalterable purpose!
C.H. Spurgeon
A Feast for Faith, Isaiah. 28:29.
Providence is
wonderfully intricate. Ah! You want always to see through Providence, do you
not? You never will, I assure you. You have not eyes good
enough. You want to see what good that affliction was to you; you must believe
it. You want to see how it can bring good to the soul; you may be enabled in a
little time; but you cannot see it now; you must believe it. Honor God by
trusting Him.
C.H. Spurgeon
God’s Providence, p. 19.
God has many
ways that He might use to achieve His ends but His wisdom determined the best
way to accomplish them.
Samuel
Willard
The Decrees of God, 1690.
The
providence of God is like a Hebrew word – it can only be read backwards.
John Flavel
Wisdom and power are the ground of the respect we give to
men; they being both infinite in God, are the foundation of a solemn honor to
be returned to Him by His creatures. If a man make a curious engine, we honor
him for his skill; if another vanquish a vigorous enemy, we admire him for his strength;
and shall not the efficacy of God's power in creation, government, redemption,
inflame us with a sense of the honor of His name and perfections! We admire
those princes that have vast empires, numerous armies, that have a power to
conquer their enemies, and preserve their own people in peace; how much more
ground have we to pay a mighty reverence to God, who, without trouble and
weariness, made and manages this vast empire of the world by a word and beck!
What sensible thoughts have we of the noise of thunder, the power of the sun, the storms of the sea! These things, that have no
understanding, have struck men with such a reverence that many have adored them
as gods. What reverence and adoration does this mighty power, joined with an
infinite wisdom in God, demand at our hands.
Stephen Charnock
The Existence and Attributes of God.
If
trifles are vital parts of divine providence, what of evil? Evil is often vastly significant. The
most important event which ever occurred was, in one aspect, horribly evil. The
crucifixion of Jesus from the standpoint of the crucifiers was grotesquely wicked.
Yet, even though the killing of Christ was atrocity itself, what event was so
vital and its effects so beneficial as the death of
Christ? If God's providence does not include evil, it does not include the most
important event which has ever taken place.
John Gerstner
Theology for Everyman, Moody, 1965, Chapter 2.
Providences
are long chains with many links in them.
If one link were missing, the event would fail. But it is God’s chain and God’s plan. The
thing is fixed. The outcome is not
doubtful.
William S. Plumer
A Treatise on Providence.
The
providence of God is the unceasing activity of the Creator whereby, in overflowing
bounty and goodwill, He upholds His creatures in ordered existence, guides and
governs all events, circumstances, and free acts of angels and men, and directs
everything to its appointed goal, for His own glory.
J.I. Packer
Providence, The New Bible
Dictionary, IVP, 1962, p. 1050-1051.