WEDNESDAY 1st
Read Psalm 139
‘Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.’
The thought we are exploring today, ‘The believer walks with God by observing his providential work in the circumstances of their lives.’
Being a child of God has many benefits and one of them is the assurance that we know as Paul puts it in Romans 8:28 that ‘we know that for those who love God all things work together for good.’ God is in control of our circumstances. This means that as we go through each day, and as each week passes into each month and then each month into each year, whatever happens, whatever circumstance we have gone through and will yet go through God knew about before it happened because even before we were born he had a volume or book with our days already set out.
God is never caught out unaware therefore we can rest in the knowledge that whatever comes our way, GOD IS IN CONTROL. His providential work is being outworked in the circumstances of our lives. This is the case whether we consider our circumstances to be good and pleasant or if we consider them to be hard and trying – God is in control.
In Genesis 50:20 Joseph makes a very telling statement, remember some of his circumstances, hated by his brothers, thrown into a pit, sold as a slave into Egypt, accused wrongly of trying to seduce the Pharaoh’s wife, thrown into prison – not a happy set of circumstance but this is what he said, ‘As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.’ God was in control, God was bringing about his plan and purpose not only for Joseph, but for his family and ultimately the Children of Israel which in turn led on to God’s future plan of eternal redemption for all who come to him by faith.
Job, who we know suffered immensely, was able to say at the end of his time of trial, (Job 42:20) ‘I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.’
I remember some of the older songs we used to sing that used to really boost my confidence and trust as a young believer in the fact that God is in control which in turn enabled me to see his hand in every situation.
One of them was, ‘I worship thee sweet will of God’, and one of the verses says,
Ill that He blesses is our good,
And unbless’d good is ill;
And all is right that seems most wrong,
If it be His sweet will
Another was ‘God holds the key of all unknown’ and I will use this as the hymn to end the devotion, but sufficient here to say that ‘God knows’ therefore we trust him.
I have often used an illustration regarding a piece of tapestry, on the back side it looks like a mess of knots, colours and pieces of cotton or wool but on the other side a beautiful piece of work. At the moment in life we are seeing the bits and pieces, but God sees the completed picture.
So at the end of this devotion, may we learn to trust, not only when we are on the mountain top, but also when we feel we are in a valley, when our human nature cannot see clearly our souls will rise to see that God is in control, and we will recognise if not immediately but later as we look back we will see God’s providential work in the circumstances of our lives.
There is so much more I could share but remember the true and living God whom we have come to know and to love also knows you and loves you and he is the All powerful God, the all knowing God and the God who is ever present and he knows no change.
Romans 8:31-39 ‘What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
God holds the key of all unknown,
And I am glad;
If other hands should hold the key,
Or if He trusted it to me,
I might be sad, I might be sad.
What if tomorrow’s cares were here
Without its rest!
I’d rather He unlocked the day;
And, as the hours swing open, say,
My will is best, My will is best.
The very dimness of my sight
Makes me secure;
For, groping in my misty way,
I feel His hand; I hear Him say,
My help is sure, My help is sure.
I cannot read His future plans;
But this I know;
I have the smiling of His face,
And all the refuge of His grace,
While here below, while here below.
Enough! this covers all my wants,
And so I rest!
For what I cannot, He can see,
And in His care I saved shall be,
Forever blest, forever blest.
John Parker CCLI 788682