Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth? Lamentations 3:37-38
Of all the doctrines in Scripture, God’s providence is one of the least taught and understood by God’s people. What is ‘God’s providence? It has a whole lot to do with God’s absolute sovereignty over all things, but there is a difference.
God’s sovereignty focuses on His eternal decrees by which His supreme goals for everything that exists have been predestined, hence they have been established and will come to pass.
His providence or His providential dealings, have to do with the mechanisms used to bring about His sovereign purposes. Its about the activities of nature and humanity employed by God to execute and bring to fruition His eternal decrees in time space and history!
God’s providence is His ongoing activity in creation where “…He works all things after the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11). Puritan, William Ames (1576 - 1633) in one of his statements on the comprehensive activity of God’s providence said, “God’s wisdom, not chance, moves all that is unto its proper end.”
This helps us understand the above text and everything that happens to us personally and in the world at large.
This means that God uses good things, bad things, and every minute detail in His world, to bring about His eternally decreed purposes. We should see that circumstances in causing the gospel going to some nations and not others, circumstances leading to our personal salvation and not someone else’s, are all about God’s providence. Our response should be - praise God for His providence as the Lord alone is worthy of all our trust because He shall surely bring His purposes to pass.