Pr 10:22 ¶ The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.
God’s Providence is usually defined as the “Will of God” exercised in time and history. As God, He does whatsoever He pleases. God’s providential orchestration of all things is one of His many blessings to His Elect. It is a comforting reality to know that nothing can frustrate the Sovereign Will of God. As the apostle clearly declares, “All things work together for good to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Things do not simply work together for good as a result of God smoothing things over after they have occurred in an effort to fix human error. All things work together as a result of God’s fore-ordination of all things. No event just happens. It happens as a result of God’s consistent intervention in history. Both good and bad things are brought to pass according to a perfect plan and sovereign power. Whosoever happens on earth is a direct result of God’s Will being executed. Only those things that God has fore-ordained comes to pass, and they come to pass precisely according to His plan; nothing can thwart it.
Solomon states this clearly.
Ec 8:3 Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for He doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.
Ezekiel's Vision of God's Providence & Glory
But why is the Providence of God so comforting to “The Called”? What makes God’s control of every human event so comforting to the people of God? It cannot be because His will is all powerful. While this is true, that fact alone is not a comfort. Power alone does not comfort. Just because the Lord is all powerful does not indicate that His Will is good.
When Christ abandoned Himself to God’s Will, He was not abandoning Himself to the Power of God per se, but rather the Wisdom, Goodness, Mercy, and Love of God. The saint’s everlasting comfort comes by knowing that the Sovereign Will of God is perfectly wise, good, loving and mercifully kind. This is what led the Lord to bow to the Will of God during His passion, and this is the saint’s confidence when difficult providences occur. Christ knew that all earthly events are executed in wisdom, goodness, love and mercy – even those events which are hard to understand and difficult to handle.
The power of God is the engine that guarantees the execution of His Will – but it is the power of God that does this in a wise, good, loving and merciful fashion.
Arthur Pink put it this way:
"Contentment [comfort] is possible only as we cultivate and maintain that attitude of accepting everything which enters our lives as coming from the Hand of Him who is too wise to err, and too loving to cause one of His children a needless tear."
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