It can be a difficult pill to swallow for some, this 'pill of providence', but like so many medicines, the taste may at first seem awful, but the effects are great, and therefore the medicines start to be our first defense, instead of a feared last resort.
"For while our adversities ought always to remind us of our sins, that the punishment may incline us to repentance, we see, moreover, how Christ declares there is something more in the secret counsel of his Father than to chastise everyone as he deserves. For he says of the man who was born blind, 'Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him'." Here, where calamity takes precedence even of birth, our carnal sense murmurs as if God were unmerciful in thus afflicting those who have not offended. But Christ declares that, provided we had eyes clear enough, we should perceive that in this spectacle the glory of his Father is brightly displayed."
Showing posts with label will of God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label will of God. Show all posts
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Blogging The Institutes: Day 34 1.16.4 - 1.16.8
My brother and I like to say, "There are no such things as coincidences." We state this because by insinuating coincidence you are saying that an event, or series of events, happened randomly. And if there existed "random" events, God would not have full control of His creation, and if that were the case that would make him less than God. I believe that is the reason Providence is such a huge part of my faith. That our God must have full control and knowledge of everything that has happened and that will happen is crucial, if He doesn't have that power, then who is to say that He has the power to SAVE but not the power to control all the workings of His creation.
The ultimate reason that Providence has such an impact is that it IS the source of my strength. To know that I have a Creator God who has my back in all situations, and is continually working on my behalf for the good of me, that He may ultimately be glorified. Through the toughest of times I know He is working and in the best of times I know He is working. "When Abraham said to his son, God will provide, he meant not merely to assert that the future event was foreknown to God, but to resign the management of an unknown business to the will of him whose province it is to bring perplexed and dubious matters to a happy result."
"Hence we maintain, that by His providence, not heaven and earth and inanimate creatures only, but also he counsels and wills of men are so governed as to move exactly in the course which he has destined. What, then, you will say, does nothing happen fortuitously, nothing contingently? I answer, it was a true saying of Basil the Great, that fortune and chance are heathen terms; the meaning of which ought not to occupy pious minds. For if all success is blessing from God, and calamity and adversity are His curse, there is no place left in human affairs for fortune and chance."
The ultimate reason that Providence has such an impact is that it IS the source of my strength. To know that I have a Creator God who has my back in all situations, and is continually working on my behalf for the good of me, that He may ultimately be glorified. Through the toughest of times I know He is working and in the best of times I know He is working. "When Abraham said to his son, God will provide, he meant not merely to assert that the future event was foreknown to God, but to resign the management of an unknown business to the will of him whose province it is to bring perplexed and dubious matters to a happy result."
"Hence we maintain, that by His providence, not heaven and earth and inanimate creatures only, but also he counsels and wills of men are so governed as to move exactly in the course which he has destined. What, then, you will say, does nothing happen fortuitously, nothing contingently? I answer, it was a true saying of Basil the Great, that fortune and chance are heathen terms; the meaning of which ought not to occupy pious minds. For if all success is blessing from God, and calamity and adversity are His curse, there is no place left in human affairs for fortune and chance."
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