Jehovah-jireh, God will Provide – Part 2

Romans 8:28-39 We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined o be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Our society is heavily influenced by the pagan view of a world that operates according to fixed independent laws, as if the Universe and the World was an impersonal machine that somehow came together through chance and inner powers (like gravity and electro-magnetism) and built-in infrastructures to keep things operating and allow it to continue. But the fact is that there could not be a Universe without a Devine act of creation and that when God created the Universe, He didn’t step out of the picture to let it operate on its own. The things that we call “the laws of nature” only reflect the normal way in which God sustains and governs the natural world. The God of nature is nature’s God.

The wicked concept that has captured the minds of so many people is the idea that the laws that operate the Universe ultimately operate by “chance”. Assigning any power to chance is the nadir of foolishness because the word “chance” simply describes mathematical possibilities. Webster’s Dictionary defines “chance” as (1) opportunity, (2) a possibility, (3) an imaginary power. Chance is not a thing, it has no power, it cannot do anything and it cannot influence anything because it isn’t anything. Chance is useful in calculating mathematical possibilities, but out of context is diabolical because people have taken this word, that is empty of any significance, and used it as a replacement for the concept and existence of Almighty God. The Bible makes it clear that nothing happens by chance. You’ve probably heard people say before that they believe that “everything happens for a reason”. All things are under the sovereign providence of God. This is exceedingly comforting to those who understand and believe this.

In this fallen world, it’s natural for us to worry about things that hurt or of loss in our lives. The Romans passage above speaks to these things. But, even if and when hurt or loss happens in our lives, all things working under the providence of our Heavenly Father. Can we lay hold of that fact? God works all things for good, but it’s hard for us to see in our short-sightedness because we sense the pain now, and the loss now. We do not see the end from the beginning as God does. Romans 8:18  says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” The comfort comes in knowing that, in Divine Providence, God is in control – not only of the Universe (it’s existence and sustaining operation), but that He is Lord of History. Our station in life (this time in history that God has placed us), with what God in His Providence has ordained for us, is to be enjoyed. Our lives are in His loving hand, sustained by Him and governed by His supreme wisdom and goodness. Thy will be done. God stands over all things and He is the ultimate source of our comfort.

Hebrews 12:2 “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”

Brian