Had a good discussion this morning for Sunday school on providence of God. A bit heady, and I meant to include more pastoral implications but I forgot to read the following quote from Herman Bavinck, so here it is:
“There is so much in life that is oppressive and that robs us of the strength to live and to act. There are the adversities and disappoints which we meet on life’s way. There are those terrible calamities and disasters which sometimes cause hundreds and thousands of lives to be lost in nameless anguish. But life in its ordinary course also can sometimes raise doubts in the mind about the providence of God. Is not mystery the portion of all mankind? The worm of restlessness and fear gnaws at all existence. Is it not true that God has a quarrel with His creatures and that we perish in His wrath and are terrified by His anger? No, it is not the unbelievers and the frivolous only, but the children of God also, and these the most deeply of all, who are seized upon by the awful seriousness of reality. And sometimes the question forces its way from the heart up to the lips: Can it be that God created man on earth for nothing?
But then the despondent Christian [and this includes Christ by the way who underwent exhaustion and trial during his temptation] by a faith in God’s creation and providence again raises his head up high. No devil, but God, the Almighty, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, created the world. It is in its entirety and it its parts the work of His hands, and of His hands alone. Once He had created it, He did not let it go. By His almighty and omnipresent power He sustains it. He governs and rules all things in such a way that they all cooperate and all converge upon the purpose He has established. The providence of God includes, together with the maintenance and cooperation, also the third aspects of governance. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords (I Tim. 6:15 and Rev. 19:6) and His kingdom lasts unto all eternity (I Tim. 1:17). No accident and no necessity, no arbitrariness and no force, no mere caprice nor iron destiny controls the world and its history and the life and lot of mankind. Behind all secondary causes there lurks and works the almighty will of an almighty God and a faithful Father.” Our Reasonable Faith, 182
