The Providence of God
Posted on: 2018/04/23
I certainly cannot say what everyone means when they use this phrase: The Providence of God.
One definition of providence is “the protective care of God.” But it seems a bit more complicated than that.
The way I hear people use the phrase seems to imply God controls and perhaps even manipulates events and circumstances for the benefit of those who believe in and follow him.
I think it’s fairly obvious there are times when such a view is hard to grasp or even accept. Most often, when something tragic happens. Does anyone believe God directs a newborn baby to be born with a life threatening defect or cancer? Does anyone think it is God’s will people die in a fire?
This past week, a woman was flying home when the engine of the plane exploded into pieces, she was partially sucked out the window of the plane and later died — did God make that happen?
Some quickly say, we don’t understand God’s plan for us.
But I don’t think these events have much to do with God’s plan for us.
God’s plan was for us to be reconciled to himself. Our failures to conform to his will separate us from him, and the point of Jesus and the gospel was to create a pathway to restore our relationship with God.
God’s plan is not that we should have a problem free life. God’s plan is that we should submit ourselves to his will.
God’s will is supreme, not because he imposes it on us, but rather, because we intentionally submit to it.
God’s will is manifest in the world as the result of our submission to it. Personally, I see God’s will manifest in the lives of his people responding to the events of life.
Bad things happen. Good things happen. But in all things may we always find a way to submit to God’s will and conform to it.
Give Yourself to Others ... 
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