Sunday morning sermons are focused on looking at and unpacking God’s word, which is entirely true and trustworthy, and so I try to keep quotes from other sources at a minimum. But there are a number of statements on God’s providence from pastors and theologians throughout history that I have found very helpful. In addition, the catechisms and confessions of the Reformation include very carefully worded definitions of God’s providence.
Such as this one from the the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646):
God the great Creator of all things doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, according to His infallible foreknowledge and the free and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.
Many of those who have clung to God’s providence most tightly have been those who have suffered greatly. Lina Sandell was the the daughter of a Lutheran pastor in Sweden, who at age 26, was with her father on a boat trip when he fell overboard and drowned before her eyes. This understandably affected her significantly, but one of the results was that it inspired her to write hymns. The following is the first stanza to her hymn “Day by Day,” which connects suffering to God’s wise providence:
Day by day, and with each passing moment,
Strength I find to meet my trials here;
Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment,
I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.
He, whose heart is kind beyond all measure,
Gives unto each day what He deems best,
Lovingly its part of pain and pleasure,
Mingling toil with peace and rest.
Among the many preachers and theologians who have held unapologetically to God’s overarching sovereignty is Charles Spurgeon, a 19th century preacher in London, known as “the prince of preachers.” Here is what he had to say in a sermon:
I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam
does not move an atom more or less than God wishes—that every
particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit, as
well as the sun in the heavens—that the chaff from the hand of
the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses. The creeping
of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the
devastating pestilence—the fall of . . . leaves from a poplar is as fully
ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche….
You will say this morning, Our minister is a fatalist. Your minister
is no such thing. Some will say, Ah! he believes in fate. He does not
believe in fate at all. What is fate? Fate is this—Whatever is, must be.
But there is a difference between that and Providence. Providence
says, Whatever God ordains must be; but the wisdom of God never
ordains anything without a purpose. Everything in this world is
working for some one great end. Fate does not say that. Fate simply
says that the thing must be; Providence says, God moves the wheels
along, and there they are.
If anything would go wrong, God puts it right; and if there
is anything that would move awry, he puts his hand and alters
it. It comes to the same thing; but there is a difference as to the
object. There is all the difference between fate and Providence that
there is between a man with good eyes and a blind man. Fate is a
blind thing; it is the avalanche crushing the village down below and
destroying thousands. Providence is not an avalanche; it is a rolling
river, rippling at the first like a rill down the sides of the mountain,
followed by minor streams, till it rolls in the broad ocean of everlasting love, working for the good of the human race. The doctrine of Providence is not: what is, must be; but that what is works together for the good of our race, and especially for the good of the chosen people of God. The wheels are full of eyes; not blind wheels.
If you are looking to dig into this topic more, John Piper’s Providence is a great resource. It is a large book, but don’t let that intimidate you, because it is very readable. It is large because it is thorough. As with most (all?) of John Piper’s books, you can find a free digital copy online.