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The Off-The-Charts Good Providence Of God

What do Joseph, Jonah, Paul, Naomi, David, and Job have in common?  Besides all of these folks’ lives being recorded for us in Scripture, they also all suffered serious trials for God’s good purposes.  Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery.  Jonah got a sunburn (it was worse than it sounds!).  Paul was shipwrecked, bitten by a viper, stoned, beaten.  David was chased by a spear-chuckin’ king for years.  Job lost all of his wealth and all of his children.  Naomi lost her husband and two sons from famine.

Amazing things resulted from many of these situations.  Joseph saved God’s people from famine when he rose from a slave to second in command in Egypt.  Paul planted who knows how many churches and saved countless people after evangelizing the entire known world in the first century.  Naomi’s lineage eventually brings us Jesus the Savior.  Job’s sufferings shamed satan by showcasing why a man would worship God despite losing the world.  

The Christian’s heart, because it is still a human’s heart, is not naturally inclined to worship and adore our God when hard things come.  In fact, plenty of people have taken the advice of Job’s wife, cursed God, and died.  We despise hard things.  We hate suffering.  We can’t stand trials.  And our faith suffers greatly for that default disposition when we don’t fight the good fight of faith to reprogram our hearts and minds to embrace and celebrate the off-the-charts good providence of God.  

Now, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that we don’t need God to teach us how to thank Him for the good gifts He gives.  When we’re promoted at work, when we meet “the one,” when the MRI declares us free from cancer, we Christians know how to celebrate God in the good things.  He has clearly been gracious and kind to us.  

But when hard things come, it’s easy to begin questioning God, questioning His goodness, or questioning whether He dropped the ball or left us in the lurch.  And this does great harm to our faith and great harm to our relationship with our God.  Because God hasn’t changed.  He’s not a Jeckyl and Hyde type of Sovereign.  He’s not two-faced.  He’s not double-minded.  All that comes to the Christian is delivered by the gracious off-the-charts good providence of God.  

So we must adjust our receiving not question the Giver.  

God’s providence is mysterious.  There are countless strands and levels above our human pay grade to discern and understand.  There are billions of ways that God is interacting with His creation today that would prompt any number of critical questions IF we forget that He is always righteous and good.  Sometimes we suffer immensely and never ever find out why.  This should humble us and build trust in God not dismantle it, because we know clearly that He works all things for the good of those who love Him (Rom. 8:28).  Sometimes the Lord gives us a glimpse of His purposes, often to sanctify us and to forge our faith through trials.  This should cause worship to erupt from our lips!  That God is so kind He would bring a serious of events or a particularly intense trial because He loves us too much for us to remain as we are.  

God doesn’t delight in our suffering, but He does use it to bear the fruit of righteousness that results in a huge celebration when Jesus comes back.  And that’s always worth delighting in.  

To bring this home, I don’t want to be the type of Christian who only celebrates one half of God’s providential care for me.  I don’t want to be the kind of recipient of grace who beams when riches and success and triumph come and then frowns and sneers at the hard trials extended from the same gracious hand of my King.  I want to worship the Lord for the hard things that He time and again uses to bring me near Him, that He uses to break down my pride, that He uses to make me useful to His service.  

I may never understand God’s ways, but I can always trust that they are good and right.  And that is enough to praise His name forever.  

I’ll end with a quote by C. H. Spurgeon (not my dog, Spurgeon, but the preacher, Spurgeon).  My MIL gave me a wall-hanging with it, and I recently have come to understand it through experience.  When you see the word “wave” think trial, suffering, hardship.  And when you see “rock of ages” you know he means Jesus.


“I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages.”  C. H. Spurgeon      

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