In this week's theology episode, we are going to look into the truth of God's providence.
God’s providence is most vividly illustrated in the life of Joseph. If you view the story of Joseph with a human lens, you will see someone who endured many difficulties wrongfully. Let’s briefly recount his life as revealed in Genesis 37-50. Joseph’s life seemed to be a perpetual process of being done wrong. Whether it was his brothers, Potipher’s wife, the butler, or anyone else, Joseph knew what it meant to be abused and misused. However, God was at work in all of his circumstances.
Jeremiah Burroughs gives us a fitting application in his seminal work, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. In this excerpt, he writes on how knowing both God’s providence and wisdom will bring great comfort to the Christian.
“A contented heart looks to God’s disposal, and submits to God’s disposal, that is, he sees the wisdom of God in everything. In his submission he sees his sovereignty, but what makes him take pleasure is God’s wisdom. The Lord knows how to order things better than I. The Lord sees further than I do; I only see things at present but the Lord sees a great while from now. And how do I know but that had it not been for this affliction, I should have been undone. I know that the love of God may as well stand with an afflicted condition as with a prosperous condition.”
Take heart in your afflictions. You can be encouraged in the greatest difficulties of your life because you know, not just that God is in control, but that God is good and He knows best. The providence of God should be like a river of peace flowing into the Christian’s life. For you and I may know that God is at work in every circumstance of life and that He knows best in all the circumstances of life.
