A young lady I know recently posted on Facebook her displeasure with an unexpected glitch in her school schedule. A class she anticipated taking first in the day was scheduled later in the day, and the class she anticipated later in the day was scheduled first. Her words? “I’m bummed.” My words to her? “Perhaps this is a good time to consider the providence of God and look for the ways God is working for your good in this unexpected turn of events.”
Providence is our experience in the everyday of the infinite, eternal, and absolute sovereignty of God. Providence is the active working of God to accomplish every aspect of his will in time and eternity and the effect his work has on both mortal and eternal creatures. Providence results in our ability to see and comprehend the plan of God in the details of daily existence. Providence is that place where our lives lay open in the hands of God and his purposes are revealed.
A man misses a plane and minutes later the plane crashes into a building. We call that providence. But it is also providence for all those passengers who were on time for the flight, and for all those people who were in the building, and for all those emergency personnel who responded, and for all those family members who waited, some for news that would forever shatter their lives.
A young boy named Joseph tells a dream, gets his brothers in trouble, winds up down a well and up a creek. He is sold as a slave, falsely accused as a pervert, imprisoned and forgotten, remembered and proved, exalted and forgiving. This is Joseph’s story. It is the story of providence, of God working in the details in time and beyond time to accomplish every aspect of his will. When Joseph’s brothers finally appear before him, these brothers who sold him down the river then spent years lying about it to their father, these brothers who were jealous cowards and selfish thieves — when these brothers finally appear before Joseph, now the prime minister of Egypt and second only to Pharaoh in power over their lives, he says to them, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis 50:20).
Before we get our knickers in a knot about some delay that inconveniences us, or some decision that derails our plans, or some disturbance that alters our course, consider the providence of God. The sovereign God is at work in the details of all of life to accomplish his eternal plan and purpose, and your life is part of that plan and is included in his purpose. Let’s be patient with God and with timing. Patience requires trust, and trust requires faith. If you believe that God is who he says he is (sovereign), then you can trust his plan and his timing and be patient because you know him, whether you know the plan or not.
God is at work in your life. That you have an opportunity to know the gospel of grace and the truth about the life and death of Jesus Christ is proof of God’s providence, his working in the details of your life to accomplish his eternal purposes. Providence is proof you can trust him through the difficulties, through the pain, through the reverses to move his plan forward and to bring you along with it.
That’s the Good News.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This week our contributor is Pastor Dale McIntire who has served as pastor of the Cornerstone Community Church in Grand Marais since April of 1995.
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