Struggling to accept the bad times in your life along with the good? Maybe even mad at God for it? Most have a hard time with this, even so called christian teachers on tv and their followers think evil is only of the devil and a Christian can avoid evil. But God teaches differently in His Word, lets learn and let Jesus set us free to love and obey Him: The Providence of God, Divine providence is the means by and through which God governs all things in the universe. The doctrine of divine providence asserts that God is in complete control of all things. But as the Bible, after all, is the best proof of any doctrine we can advance, I beg to refer you to one or two texts. First, let me ask you to direct your attention to a passage in Isaiah 45:6, 7, “I am the Lord and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things.” Now here is a most direct assertion of the power of God in everything—that He makes peace and that He makes evil—that he creates light and that he creates darkness. We may ask as the Prophet did of old, “Is there evil in the city and the Lord has not done it?” Even providential evil is to be ascribed to God. And in some marvelous sense which we understand not and cannot comprehend, the ordinance of God has even reference to the sins of men—“He has made even the wicked for the day of His wrath.” “The vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, even these shall show forth His praise.” Good and evil in your condition you must ever regard as the work of God. Whatever your circumstances are this morning—are you sick, are you in poverty or are you much troubled—the evil as well as the good is the work of God. And shall a man receive good at the hands of the Lord and shall he not in equal patience receive evil? Will you not take everything from God which He is pleased to give, seeing that He Himself asserts, “I create light, I create darkness. I make good and I make evil.” Turn now to a passage in Job 14:5—“his days are determined, the number of his months are with You. You have appointed his bounds that he cannot pass.” What a solemn thought! God has “appointed our bounds.” One of the Prophets says, “You have hedged up my way with thorns and made a wall so that I cannot find my paths.” And that is first the Truth in regard to man’s life. The “bounds” of it are “appointed!” Man only walks within these “bounds.” Out of these limits he cannot get. If this does not imply the hand of God in everything, I do not know what does. Turn now to a Proverb from the wise man—Proverbs 16:33—“The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.” And if the disposal of the lot is the Lord’s, whose is the arrangement of our whole life? You know when Achan had committed a great sin, the tribes were assembled and the lot fell upon Achan. When Jonah was in the ship, they cast lots and the lot fell upon Jonah. And when Jonathan had tasted the honey, they cast lots and Jonathan was taken. When they cast lots for an Apostle who should succeed the fallen Judas, the lot fell upon Matthias and he was separated to the work. The lot is directed of God. And if the simple casting of a lot is guided by Him, how much more the events of our entire life—especially when we are told by our blessed Savior—“The very hairs of your head are all numbered: not a sparrow falls to the ground without your Father.” If it is so. If these hairs are counted. If an inventory is written of each one of them. And if the existence of each of these hairs is marked and mapped, how much more precious in the sight of the Lord shall our lives be? Take one more passage in Jeremiah 10:23—“O Lord I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walks to direct his steps.” -Spurgeon And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. Rom 8:28-30
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 15:55:49 +0000
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