Christians should be eternal optimists. Heidelberg Catechism 28 says that the doctrine of providence encourages us to “place our firm trust in our faithful God and Father.” Literally, the Dutch reads, “have a good expectation.” Child of God, do you have a good expectation for your future? The hand of our Father rules the world, and no one can stop His purposes from being fulfilled (Dan. 4:35). “God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:9). You are in the hand of the Father and the Son, and there is no safer place in the world (John 10:28–29).
Nothing is more practical than the doctrine of providence, for it engenders both faith and godly fear. When Christ teaches us how to deal with anxiety, He reminds us that God the Father feeds every little bird and clothes every flower with its lovely colors (Matt. 6:25–30). How much more, then, should we trust Him to care for His own beloved children? Whether one is willing to admit it or not, everyone constantly lives in the presence of the living God. The more the believer is conscious of God’s providence, the more it can be said of him, as B.B. Warfield wrote, “Everywhere he sees God in His mighty stepping, everywhere he feels the working of His mighty arm, the throbbing of His mighty heart.”
Our God is in control. While we cannot fully plumb the depths of God’s ways, we can still affirm that “of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever” (Rom. 11:36, KJV throughout). There are many things for which we do not know the reason, but for everything we know who has ordained them. Obadiah Sedgwick wrote, “No one is so fit to govern the world as He who made it.” His perfect wisdom, holiness, justice, power, love, and goodness will not fail.
Consequently, we can be like the child on board a ship who remained peaceful while wind and waves raged around him. When asked how he kept calm in such a violent storm, he replied, “My father is the captain.” How much more can the church sing: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea” (Ps. 46:1–2).
God’s providence benefits believers in many ways. Let’s consider five of them.
Trust in God’s Fatherly Sovereignty
First, the God-centered Christian worldview establishes our trust that our Father reigns over all things through His Son by the Holy Spirit. The Heidelberg Catechism says:
The eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (who of nothing made heaven and earth, with all that is in them; who likewise upholds and governs the same by His eternal counsel and providence) is for the sake of Christ His Son, my God and my Father; on whom I rely so entirely, that I have no doubt but He will provide me with all things necessary for soul and body; and further, that He will make whatever evils He sends upon me, in this valley of tears, turn out to my advantage; for He is able to do it, being Almighty God, and willing, being a faithful Father. (Q&A 26)
The doctrines of providence and adoption link arms to undergird God’s children with a wonderful confidence. The sovereign God is their loving Father in Jesus Christ, so that in all of life they “are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by Him as by a Father; yet never cast off,” as the Westminster Confession of Faith says (12.1). John Cotton exclaimed, “Is it a light matter for the God of heaven and earth to be called your Father, since you are but men?” As our Father, God will surely give “provision for a son here and provision for an heir hereafter,” for “God nurtures us” and “hath given us an inheritance.”
We live in a dangerous world. Disease, disaster, and war sweep many people into eternity every day. Evil men oppress and abuse the godly and the innocent. Unseen to our eyes, Satan and his host go about like roaring lions seeking to devour people and drag them to damnation (1 Peter 5:8). The deceptions and passions of sin rage in our hearts, so that we are never safe from ourselves. Realism demands that we live wisely and prudently in such a perilous place.
However, Christians need not live fearfully or anxiously but may cling to the promise of Romans 8:28: “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” Thomas Watson wrote: “All the various dealings of God with his children do by a special providence turn to their good. ‘All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant’ (Ps. 25:10).” He concluded, “The grand reason why all things work for good, is the near and dear interest which God has in His people. The Lord has made a covenant with them. ‘They shall be my people, and I will be their God’ (Jer. 32:38).”
God’s providence comforts His covenant people. Sedgwick said:
No good man ever lacked anything that was good for him. I may lack a thing which is good, but not which is good for me: “The LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly” (Ps. 84:11).
God has a special providence over His living church because we are the apple of His eye, His lambs, His children, and His jewels (Zech. 2:8; Isa. 40:11; 49:15; Mal. 3:17). His care for His people is entirely gracious, tender, mysterious, glorious, exact, and often extraordinary.
Faith in God’s providence supports the Christian’s service to God. It is his shield against all the attacks of Satan (Eph. 6:16). Warfield said, “A firm faith in the universal providence of God is the solution of all earthly troubles.” Rather than being paralyzed with fear or driven about by anxiety, the strong believer stands on the stable ground of divine providence and advances ahead in firm obedience and submission to his Master’s will.
Childlike Faith in Prayer
Second, people who believe in God’s providence are people of prayer who know and believe that their providing God commands, hears, and answers prayer. They know that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17).
John Calvin said:
It will not suffice simply to hold that there is One whom all ought to honor and adore, unless we are also persuaded that he is the fountain of every good, and that we must seek nothing elsewhere than in him. . . . No drop will be found either of wisdom and light, or of righteousness or power or rectitude, or of genuine truth, which does not flow from him, and of which he is not the cause.
Prayer is the cry of childlike faith. When we pray, “Our Father which art in heaven . . . Give us this day our daily bread,” as our Lord taught us (Matt. 6:9, 11), we acknowledge God “to be the only fountain of all good, and that neither our care nor industry” can get us what we need and desire without His blessing, and therefore, we “withdraw our trust from all creatures and place it alone” in Him (HC 125).
The Lord teaches us to go to Him with every need, with all our frailty, with all our cares. Knowing that He is our provider, we should seek from Him our food and drink, health, clothing, good relationships in our families, success in our callings, the Spirit’s power in our churches, and peace for our nation. We should cast “all [our] care upon him; for he careth for [us]” (1 Peter 5:7).
Knowing God’s providence fosters humility, which is vital for prayer. The Holy Scriptures remind us that no matter how hard we work, we cannot get anything unless we receive it from His hand (Ps. 104:28; John 3:27). Indeed, we cannot move a finger, blink an eye, or think a thought without His enablement. We may have the greatest skills and the most impressive list of experiences and references, but “it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth” (Deut. 8:18). Even with strength and skill, we might toil all day and fail to attain our goals. “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain” (Ps. 127:1).
Therefore, we must trust in God alone and seek all good things from Him. Oh, to have a true sense of our constant dependence on Him! So often people go to work day after day, buy groceries, take medicine, pay bills, and enjoy pleasures—but do not give a thought to Him and the fact that all depends on His will. Their hearts are lifted up in pride, they forget the Lord, and they say, “My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth” (Deut. 8:17). Their prayerlessness is the nail that seals the coffin of their spiritual deadness. But the child of God has the Spirit of adoption crying in his heart, “Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6). He knows by a Spirit-infused instinct that all deliverance from evil and enjoyment of good comes from his Father. And therefore, he prays. And you? Do you pray? Are your prayers a sincere seeking after Him who is the fountain of all good? Do you really believe in the God of providence?
Patience in Adversity
The Heidelberg Catechism highlights three more benefits of knowing God’s providence:
That we may be patient in adversity; thankful in prosperity; and that in all things, which may hereafter befall us, we place our firm trust in our faithful God and Father, that nothing shall separate us from His love; since all creatures are so in His hand, that without His will they cannot so much as move. (Q&A 28)
A third benefit, therefore, is patience in adversity. We naturally respond to adversity by sinking into self-centered bitterness or falling into despondency. However, even when our circumstances are turbulent or painful, the Christian should cultivate inner quietness by exercising faith in God’s providence. David said, “I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it” (Ps. 39:9). Godly quietness under sorrow comes not from hardening our hearts and shutting down our emotions but from clinging to God in the midst of the storm.