God wants us to know and trust Him as provident. To say that God is provident is to affirm that divine providence is a reality in our world and in our lives. This means that God did not just create the world and then leave it to its own fortunes. Rather, God’s providence indicates that He is still actively involved in His creation, both the world at large and in our individual lives.
Christians generally think about divine providence at two levels: general providence and special providence. Let’s begin by thinking about God’s general providence. By His general providence, we are thinking about God’s universal concern and control of the whole world. Jesus was speaking to this aspect of His Father’s care for human creation when He said in the Sermon on the Mount, “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45). This is an example of God’s general providence.
Providential work
Turning to the idea of special providence, we think of God’s intervention into and interaction with specific events, situations, groups and individuals. For example, what on the surface may appear to be a quirky coincidence of circumstances may well be God working providentially behind the scenes.
People are sometimes heard to explain some event by saying, “For some strange or unknown reason things didn’t turn out as I expected.” People of faith might put it differently — that God’s mercy was at work in preventive mission or that God’s grace was at work in His benevolent mission. God’s special providential work may be dramatic in an unexpected rain storm or a traffic snarl that prevented someone from being on an ill-fated plane flight or some other set of circumstances that resulted in a good outcome. God’s providential work is often not so dramatic but is still a reality even when unseen by us.
A kind of subset of God’s special providence is His interest in and interaction with those who have become His children through personal trust in Jesus. As Christians we have more than ordinary channels through which God can exercise providential care. Such channels include communication with God through prayer — God’s communication with us through His written Word and His indwelling Holy Spirit — and the loving concern of fellow members of the family of God, through whom He often ministers.
Great mystery
When we have said all we know to say about God’s providential intervention in the lives of His people, great mystery remains as to why sometimes we can see His mercy and grace displayed in what happens and why sometimes it seems God has been quiet and inactive. In either case our best response is to praise Him whether or not we see His providential hand at work.
If what happens seems bad and we find ourselves wishing God had intervened to shield us, then we do well to praise Him anyway. We may not understand what awaits us on the far side of life’s disappointments and tragedies. After all, faith confesses that God’s ways are beyond ours as far as the heavens are higher than the earth (Isa. 55:8–9).
Closely joined to God’s providence is the truth of His purposefulness, which is next week’s topic.
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