Precious Providence

How precious is it to know that God sustains all things and orchestrates all things for his purposes, that everything that comes my way today is by his appointment, whether joy or tears?

According to the psalmist, the knowledge of such things is a matter of life and death. And it’s only in God’s word that we find them (Ps 119:89-92).

“If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction” (Ps 119:92). In other words, if I didn’t know of God’s orchestrating, loving, good purposes in my agony, I would have died.

Reflecting on James 1:2-4 and the command to count all our trials as joy, Bruce Ware writes,

“What an incredible expectation and command. The only way that any person could find trials and affliction “all joy” is to know that they have been designed for great gain and ultimate joy. Clearly the joy does not reside in the experience of affliction taken by itself. James is not living in denial. He is not trivializing the agony of affliction or the pain often endured in trials. But he encourages all believers to look past the pain to the purpose, i.e., to see what God intends to accomplish through it” (God’s Greater Glory, 173).

Because God has ultimate control over all my sufferings and trials, I find life in the experience of death, joy in the presence of pain. If I didn’t know God’s providence, I would die.