The Providence of God

The word keeps popping up regardless of my reading material. The variety of reading resources range from a national news magazine, the morning paper and various novels that have allowed me to pass the time of day … doing more than merely watching the “idiot box.” The word is Providence - the Providence of God … God’s direct involvement in our daily activities to bring about his desires for our life and the life of those around us while allowing us to exercise our free will. I need to be careful that I do not slip into an old Protestant Reformation sinkhole of theology here – namely, predestination. That is always the case when a discussion is held concerning the Providence of God.

The question which confronts us … or at least me … is this: Does things happen in our life simply by accident or by divine intervention? Do people simply come into our lives by happenstance or is there something greater taking place? Allow me to share what I have felt to be some examples of the Providence of God in my own life and ministry.

Example #1: As I shared in my blog on April 30 – “Healing and Wholeness” … my appointment to St. Luke’s UMC could not have come at a better time in our life considering what we were about to face with our son’s illness and death. I believe that it was by God’s Providence that we were there.

Example #2: After St. Luke’s came First UMC, Hudson and by God’s grace, tremendous growth took place in that congregation which has continued to this very day.

Example #3: In a number of situations there were young men and women who I was sure that God was calling into ministry and said so. All of them are presently serving churches – one in North Carolina and others throughout the State of Florida. As one of them shared with his mother, recently deceased, “Wow, I cannot believe that they are paying me to do this!”

Example #4: While at Hudson there came into the church a person whose life was coming apart as well as his marriage. Through several counseling sessions he came to know the Lord which helped to heal his marriage and ultimately lead him into a position of strong leadership within that congregation. His story can be repeated numerous times in every situation that I found myself serving the cause of Christ.

Example #5: The miracle of the adoption of our daughter Erin – if that wasn’t by the Providence of God I do not know what is. The State of Florida requires many, many hurdles to be jumped over – medical health exams, financial records, interviews with neighbors and friends, etc. along with several off-site visits before the approval would be given for the adoption to proceed. Well, the short of it all is that in a matter of just a couple of weeks and with us having completed very few of the requirements when the case worker called saying that she would like to introduce us to a little girl. The case worker brought her to our home for the initial visit and after about an hour asked us what we thought. We were in love – she would fit in perfectly and then the case worker said, “Good, I’ll go get her things out of the car.” And BINGO, by God’s Providence we had our second daughter … without all the t’s crossed or the I’s dotted.

Example #6 deals with the huge number of men and women who have come into our lives over these many years … from the U of M medical student and his young family to the St. Pete who stepped and just took on the parenting responsibilities for Tracy while we dealt with Tim’s illness to our St. Pete neighbors who we adopted as grandparents for our two daughters to … and the list continues to include a fairly large (and growing) number of caring and loving people that, because of God’s Providence, are a part of our family.

Into this discussion I would have to add the idea of the Will of God … and I must admit there is much about His Will that I simply do not understand even though I’ve read extensively on the subject, preached sermon series on the idea, taught Bible study and Sunday school classes on the topic, as well as leading small study groups using the material and videos for “Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God” – a great short term study that I would highly recommend. All of this work has surely helped, but I am still left wondering and questioning the idea. Can you go in a particular direction in your life if it isn’t a part of God’s will? Well, yes and no … it depends on God’s Ultimate Will … Whatever you decide to do in your life will not happen if for some reason it circumvents God’s Ultimate Will for his Kingdom and the people of that Kingdom.

Another way to view God’s will for your life is by looking backwards … if you are better off today than you were yesterday or a week ago or a year ago then the decisions that caused you to arrive at where you are were a part of God’s Ultimate Will for your life. This requires a lot of soul searching and course adjustments in order to keep life and God’s will aligned … it doesn’t automatically take place.

If we are living in harmony with God’s ultimate will then we will experience the Providence of God … What do you think?

Quote for today: “Do not hastily ascribe things to God. Do not easily suppose dreams, voices, impressions, visions or revelations to be from God. They may be from Him. They may be from nature. They may be from the Devil.” J.K. Johnston