God’s Providence
O Lord, how manifold are Your works!
In wisdom You have made them all.
The earth is full of Your possessions—
This great and wide sea,
In which are innumerable teeming things,
Living things both small and great . . . .
These all wait for You,
That You may give them their food in due season.
What You give them they gather in;
You open Your hand, they are filled with good.
You hide Your face, they are troubled;
You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.Psalm 104:24, 25, 27-29
The providence of God is His care of and provision which He makes for His creatures; with His supervision and superintendence of them. The providence of God in His government of the world is a subject of deep importance to the Christian, for by proper views thereof, he will learn to see God’s activities—in the daily works of His hands. Yet, though Christians assent to this truth, nevertheless they are prone to overlook it in exercise, and thereby to be deprived in great measure of that poise of mind and comfort of heart, which a deep and constant improvement of this doctrine is calculated to impart.
Nothing is more strengthening to faith, stabilizing to the mind, and tranquilizing to the heart of a Christian—than for him to be enabled to discern his Father’s hand guiding, shaping, and controlling everything which enters his life; and not only so, but that He is also governing this world, and all people and events in it.
Alas, we are living in an age of terrible skepticism, when most of what happens is attributed to natural causes, while God is more and more banished from the world, in the consideration of His creatures. It is not only a fact that God governs the world in a general sense, but He also regulates all its affairs, and controls all creatures in it, “working all things after the counsel of His own will” (Ephesians 1:11) . . . .
God is not perturbed by anything that is now taking place in His world—either in its political, social, or religious sphere; nor should we be. The helm is still in His hand; and Satan himself cannot so much as touch a hair of our heads, without His direct permission . . . .
We ought to see the hand of God in the most trifling things. Nothing is so small as to be below His attention.
-A.W Pink