Many professing Christians claim to know of God’s grace and that God is a God who provides. Most, however, do not truly understand what Divine Providence means, let alone truly believe in it. They lack a fullness of understanding concerning this matter. This, however, not their fault for the most part, owing to a lack of poor teaching and discipleship. Nonetheless, this has resulted in many being swept away by the currents of the world that follows the desires of the flesh, and the winds of false doctrine.
Understanding Divine Providence is not merely about knowing that God is a God who provides. It is to understand that God is the Sovereign Maker of all things, and that all things are made by God, for God and through God. To truly understand what Divine Providence means requires one to live out this conviction; otherwise, such a profession is in vain. Nor it is a matter of understanding for the sake of knowledge. Understanding Divine Providence is fundamental to advancing in the spiritual life, in understanding the how the divine hand operates in all things. Without it, one will not grow deeper in the fullness of knowledge of the faith, or grow spiritually.
Gaining such understanding is not merely a matter appertaining to obedience to God. One will also gain much joy and peace in the midst of a tumultuous, unstable world, and be strengthened to live a victorious life as God created one for. It will empower one to trust in the will of God, in pursuing the true calling He has for one, vanquishing the fear of doing so owing to anxieties over how one will survive in this world. It will also save one from the great deal of regret, heartache, and sorrows that befall those who seek riches or who rely on the whims of material stability.
Divine Providence Surpasses Material Provision
Divine Providence is often defined to mean God’s provision for material needs, such as food, shelter, and clothes. This, however, is not only an improper and limited understanding, but an unsound one that belittles divine providence, and the Provider Himself.
Divine Providence is expansive, for God is love, and love by its very nature, is generous, willing to give, not holding back in giving what the recipient needs for their good. It is unlike a business transaction where a seller only reciprocates what he is to receive. He sells not only out of generosity, but with the expectation of receiving back what the thing sold is worth.
It is both of reflection and an outflowing of God’s love towards humanity that He provides. He provides for the poor and the needy, the orphan and the widow, the sick and the lonely. His providence encompasses not merely the material, but also the spiritual. He executes justice on behalf of the poor (Psalm 34:6, 35:10, 109:30-31, 113:7, 140:12, 146:8). He places the lonely in families (Psalm 68:6). He protects the refugee and the migrant (Psalm 146:9). This too is His Providence.
Divine Providence is God’s act of mercy and grace towards a needy world. He provides for all, both the believer and unbeliever, the righteous and the wicked, ‘[making] his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust’ (Matthew 5:45). This He does not to only exhibit His compassion on the whole of humanity. It is to demonstrate that He is no respecters of persons, seeing all as equal in dignity before Him, manifesting His just nature, and the Just nature of His Grace, not willing only some to blessed but desiring all to be blessed.
Furthermore, it is to show that righteousness does not necessarily lead to greater material provision, and that wickedness does not reap less material provision. This is to demonstrate one should not pursue righteousness in exchange for one’s own gain, but that righteousness be sought because it pleases God. It is also to demonstrate that material things are not blessings, since even evil and unjust people are provided for. Though they may receive things now, they will no longer enjoy them after death, but have only hellfire that awaits. The limited nature of the material is an indictment to them, that such is all the good they will receive, for only an instant of time in light of all eternity.
Importantly, it reveals that Divine Providence appertaining to the material is subordinate to the divine, the spiritual, and the eternal. All things created and uncreated, seen and unseen originated in the spiritual realm. For all things were created by Him and for Him (Colossians 1:16). It is God who writes the history of the universe, the world, and humanity, who orders everything for the divine good. This testifies of God’s Sovereignty, from which all Providence flows.
Though terrible sufferings, afflictions, trials, and temptations may befall us for reasons one can never fathom during this age, it is God who permits such for our divine good. Though one may cry out to God, question God, or even ask for God to take away one’s cup of suffering, one can be certain that the hand of God is still actively writing the course of human history, as well as the universe, and that God has not fallen of His Throne. Though the world always changing, God does not, because He is Absolute in His very nature, the source of Truth, and the Arbiter of Truth. He, the Great I AM (Exodus 3:14) is definite by nature. He is the living Truth, self-defining, outside of whom there is no independent truth, and can exist no independent truth. Thus, by His Sovereignty, God governs all things in the universe from its beginning to the end, and for all of eternity. It is the same God who provides all things in its time and place, in accordance to His Eternal Law. For such is the mystery of Divine Providence.
This mystery is unfathomable, and it is the glory of God that only He knows of certain truths which even Christ the Son does not. For it is the glory of God to conceal a matter (Proverbs 25:2). Of all the mysteries in life, the greatest is how God loves us, that he planned our Salvation before we were even conceived, lavishing upon us the riches of the eternal inheritance in Christ (Ephesians 1:11, 14, 18). In such unfathomable richness, therein the beauty of the mystery lies (Ephesians 1:9).
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insightmaking known to us the mystery of his will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christas a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in Him.
In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of his Will,so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory.In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guaranteeof our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.
(Ephesians 1:3-14)
Indeed, salvation is a divine mystery. Salvific history contains an abundance of hidden divine truths concealed. Of all the mysteries of the divine, the biggest is why did God send His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ to die for the sins of the world? Yet, the answer is evident. It is because He so loved the world (John 3:16). Such love that God has bestowed upon humanity is the greatest mystery of all.
It is truly a great blessing to know the love of God. Knowing such perfect, unconditional, unwavering, unending, and unlimited love is the greatest treasure of life, beyond all human understanding. It is truly amazing that God, who is the Truth, is love. God, the Maker of all things, Creator of all human beings, loves each and every single one of His image bearers with a deep love, desiring to reconcile all to Him.
God’s Love is itself Divine Providence, out of which He made a way for the Salvation of humankind, and Christ instituted the sacraments for its healing and restoration. All things, both visible and invisible are part of His Divine Providence. This includes the human desire for love, as well as our ability to love and receive love. Salvation, which is God’s solution to sin and its consequences, is the ultimate Divine Provision.
Trusting in God’s Providence is Wisdom
Whenever tragedy strikes or hardship unexpectedly befalls, it is natural to question God’s Providence. That was exactly what Job did (Job 3). Job was a righteous man, blameless before God (Job 1:1, 8). Job, however, did not lose faith in God but persevered. When Job’s wife harangued him to “curse God and die” (Job 2:9), he rebuked her for her foolishness: “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”. Still, ‘in all this Job did not sin with his lips’ (Job 2:10).
Job’s wife was foolish because she refused to acknowledge God and the thanksgiving due to Him in all things, whether one receives the good or suffers evil, just as the pagans who although they knew of God as His created world testifies, refused to acknowledge Him and give thanks to Him, owing to their ungodliness and unrighteousness:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honour Him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools,and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
(Romans 1:18-23)
The knowledge of the Holy One is insight [or understanding] (Proverbs 9:10). Part of this knowledge is that appertaining to God’s Eternal Power and Divine Nature, through which He exercises Divine Providence. Thus, knowledge of Divine Providence is spiritual understanding, and such understanding leads to wisdom. Wisdom is trusting in Divine Providence, in applying that understanding to one’s life.
The worldling who lacks understanding acknowledges not God, but worships the His Creation, wanting to enjoy the good God endows, yet refusing to give thanks to Him. He spits in the face of God, taking for granted all the good God bestows upon him. He proudly thinks he deserves such good. Not only that, he takes credit for the intellect, moral virtue, or life God has granted him, wanting to use it not for good, but for evil. In doing so, he makes himself his own authority who determines right and wrong, good and evil, thinking himself so wise. Despite his manifold wickedness, being filled with all manner of hatred, lust, malice and envy (Titus 3:3), he thinks himself morally upright, justified in everything he does, while condemning others who do the same when he is on the receiving end of their malice and hatred.
During times of ease and comfort, the worldling cruises through life, smug behind his wealth and health, treasure and pleasure, not even acknowledging God’s existence, but when hard times befall, he suddenly speaks of God, cursing and blaming Him for his adversity and affliction. He whinges and whines, asking what has he done to deserve it or why him, not seeing how ungrateful or prideful he is to even think to ask such questions. Instead of humbling himself before God in wisdom, he becomes filled with worldly sorrow, drowning himself in self-pity, beating his chest, crying and screaming about his pain, destroying his own soul with wrath. Such is the foolishness of the world!
By contrast, a righteous person acknowledges and gives thanks to God in all things. He is humble, not proud. In this humility lies his wisdom, for the ‘fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom’ (Proverbs 9:10). Such fear of God is not terror, but holy reverence towards Him surpassing mere respect, to tremble before God in awe, giving Him the glory and honour due to Him.
The righteous person is not puffed up as to think he is the authority who determines right and wrong, good or evil, ‘walking in according to his own sight’ as did the Israelites during the era of Judges (17 v.6, 21 v.25), or as the worldling (Proverbs 14:12, 21:2). He is not led by the desires of his flesh, but led by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:6-11; Galatians 5:17-21; Titus 3:3). He does not follow the ‘course of this world’ (Ephesians 2:2), nor the ‘wind of doctrine’, (Ephesians 4:14). He does not exploit ‘human cunning’ or ‘craftiness in deceitful schemes’ (Ephesians 4:14) to satisfy his fleshly desires, but walks in integrity, shunning all cunning and deceitfulness, despising even the slightest taint (Psalm 25:21, 26:1; 2 Corinthians 4:2; 1 Peter 2:12).
Though many a worldling may possess intellectual brilliance, he lacks understanding because he lacks the knowledge of God, who is the foundation of all Truth. The worldling may possess a vast array of knowledge about the world, but he knows not any spiritual truths, nor can he perceive them because he is spiritually dead, living in bondage to the desires of his flesh, and blinded by deception of the world. For the ‘natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned’ (1 Corinthians 2:14).
The righteous, though he may be unlearned in worldly knowledge, has knowledge of God as gifted to him from heaven above. Such wisdom is pure, from God Himself who is definition of Truth itself, absent of all error, and which reaps righteousness: ‘But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace’ (James 3:17-18).
Trusting in God’s Providence is wisdom as it honours God first, humbling assenting to His Will, and acknowledging that His ways are higher than one’s own. It is to completely assent to God who declared:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,
As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
(Isaiah 55:8-9)
It is to disavow walking according to one’s sight or one’s wisdom, which is the height of all foolishness, and instead surrender to God’s wisdom and knowledge in faith. It is in understanding that all things were created by God, for God and through God whereby one receives the wisdom of Divine Providence, in not only trusting, but living in it:
For by Him [God] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him.
(Colossians 1:16)
Living in Divine Providence is Obedience before God
Though Christ taught that one “cannot serve both God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24), most professing believers think they can just manage to serve both masters. In their profound foolishness, they arrogantly think that they are the exception to the rule, presuming they can pursue both God and mammon, and serve both wholeheartedly. They may attend church weekly, pray daily, read scriptures devoutly, and profess all doctrinal, spiritual, and moral truths, but when confronted on their love of mammon, these professing believers who seem kind and gentle, suddenly arch up against those who rebuke them, fighting back tooth and nail.
Such people think they are living a holy life, but are only deceiving themselves. They may be learned with all manner of theological knowledge, but lack wisdom as to what true holiness is, and how to live a holy life. These types are they who circumspectly adhere to their own interpretation of the law of God, rather than truly obeying God, actively serve in ministry, but whose hearts are far from God, and criticise others for theological differences, making a non-issue an issue that should not be. Their hearts are full of envy, greed, gluttony, lust, wrath, and pride. The sole reason they are not full of sloth is because of their anxiety to gain more material wealth in their love of mammon. They think they are holy but are unholy, putting on false guise of holiness with their own arbitrary rules, taking it upon themselves to have the authority to impose it on others.
It is not enough to trust in Divine Providence; one must live in Divine Providence. One either lives outside of Divine Providence, or lives in Divine Providence. Living outside of Divine Providence limits oneself to what the eyes can see, walking by sight, instead of faith. It measures the one’s blessedness in accordance to the abundance of temporal, earthly goods one receives. It is driven by the desire to pursue earthly, temporal security. It is driven by anxiety. Above all, it loves the treasures and pleasures, the security and stability, the ease and comfort this life offers. It pursues mammon. It is to be attached to the world and the things of the world, instead of being attached to God alone.
By contrast, living in Divine Providence does not live by what it can see, but in accordance to the unseen in faith. It is to heed the instruction of Christ, “do not be anxious about your life”, in spite of uncertainty, afflictions, or suffering (Matthew 6:25). Living in Divine Providence does not merely live on Divine Providence, in simply not being anxious for material needs and using the material things God has endowed one with for good. Instead, it actively and singularly pursues the will of God, as it continually trusts in supernatural provision of material things, whether during abundance or scarcity, prosperity or poverty, even if it means enduring suffering. Above all, it knows the grace of God and loves God, humbly trusting in Him. It is to be detached from the world, and attached only to God. It is to make doing the Will of God one’s food which sustains one’s soul as did Christ, who said in response to His Disciples’ concern about whether He had eaten, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” (John 4:34).
Living in Divine Providence opposes human nature which desires independence from God, and finds dependence on God repugnant. It requires great faith to even believe in Divine Providence, let alone accept it and subsequently live in Divine Providence. It requires immense courage, of the kind that could only be endowed by Heaven itself, to live without fear or anxiety in this life and this world. It is a courage only granted to those who choose to sincerely pursue God, who desire to mortify the desires of the flesh and live for Christ. It will be granted to those who earnestly seek such courage to surrender to God.
As Saint Catherine of Siena said, “[God] will provide the way and the means, such as you could never have imagined. Leave it all to Him, let go of yourself, lose yourself on the Cross, and you will find yourself entirely.” By surrendering oneself to God completely, letting go of one’s desires, even good ones, and losing oneself in the Cross, which symbolises His perfect Love, one will find oneself entirely, not gaining all that Divine Providence offers, both in this life and the next, truly living as God created one to live, and being who God created one to be.
For Christ Himself said, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). The mystery of this paradox lies in the spiritual truth that to gain God is to gain everything because only God is eternal. Even if one had nothing in this life that the world chases after, as long as one has God, one has everything. To gain the whole world except God is to gain everything that has no eternal value, ultimately gaining everything in vain.
Facing the loss of all that one has in this life is the biggest test of one’s love for Christ. Those who truly love Jesus will be willing to lose it all for Him – even one’s very life. They as the saints in the End Times who ‘have conquered [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death’ as prophesised by the Apostle John (Revelation 12:11).
Living in Divine Providence is Gain
Living for Christ is costly. Christ Himself said those who want to follow Him must “count the cost” (Luke 14:28). He was realistic about what it would entail. Many who hear the Gospel are interested in what they can gain, but hesitant about surrendering their whole selves to Christ as He knew all too well. In response to someone who said “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the Kingdom of God!”, Jesus told of the Parable of the Great Banquet:
A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’
(Luke 14:16-24)
Those invited were granted the offer to enjoy the banquet, but declined. Instead, they all made excuses. The first bought a field and sought to tend to it. The second bought five oxen, and likewise sought to tend to them. The third married a wife and sought to attend to her.
The banquet symbolises the Kingdom of Heaven, and the invitation represents Jesus’ offer of Salvation. All three invitees, each of whom found treasure on earth, declined because their hearts were idolatrous, and wickedly rejected the banquet as nothing, insulting the master of the house.
The problem lay in not with owning things such as a field, oxen, or a wife, but their attachment towards such things that one is unable to give them up for the sake of Christ. Such attachment is idolatry, in one’s love for earthly things, rendering one unable to truly love God. As Saint Thomas Aquinas surmises, they are “the wicked who have withdrawn from Christ in their love of earthly things, will remain on earth; but the good, who have clung to Christ, will be raised up into the air when they go to meet Christ, that they may be made like Christ, not only by being conformed to the splendor of His glory, but by being associated with Him in the place He occupies.”
Therefore, the parable is a condemnation of those who have received Salvation, but having become enamoured in earthly treasures, they are not willing to give up all for Christ, ultimately rejecting Him. Such people will not enter Heaven, despite all their outward trappings of religion, be it their profession of faith or love of Christ, weekly church attendance, or daily participation in the sacraments. None of these matter in the slightest as long as one’s heart does not truly love Christ, in desiring Him only, being attached only to God and nothing else, treating all else as ‘rubbish’ as Saint Paul declared:
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.
(Philippians 3:8)
Unless one can likewise sincerely and wholeheartedly declare that one counts all things as rubbish, one cannot truly be a disciple of Christ, and thereby gain Christ. It is evident that most professing Christians do not genuinely love Jesus, but only the things He offers, such as healing, miracles, and comfort. These people will be told on the Day of Judgment by Christ, “I never knew you, depart from my, you workers of lawlessness!” (Matthew 7:23).
Christ knew too well that most among the ‘great crowds [who] accompanied Him’ (Luke 14:25) only loved Him for what they could gain from Him, rather than Christ Himself. So, that is why He told them:
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
(Luke 14:26-27)
‘Bearing one’s own cross’ means to be willing to lay down one’s life for Christ, enduring all suffering in this life, and disavowing the pursuit of the things this world offers. ‘Coming after Christ’ means to pursue Christ, submitting to His will for one’s life. To illustrate what this means, Christ gives the analogies of building a tower and waging a war:
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
(Luke 14:28-32)
Just as building a tower or waging a war is costly and requires great sacrifice, so is following Christ. Trials, temptations, tribulations, persecution, and suffering are inevitable (John 16:33; 2 Timothy 3:12). Following Christ is not merely believing in His person and work. Even the demons believe in Him! Believing in Christ is easy, and merits one no reward if not followed by obedience to Christ. What Jesus demands is full surrender to Him. He is worthy, not just of our full surrender, but our worship, our adulation, our honour, our veneration, and our glorification, not because of what He does for us, but because He is God. He is worthy in Himself, regardless of what He does for us, even if He did not come to save or love us first. Attachment to anything other than God Himself is love for mammon, and no one who loves mammon can love God (Matthew 6:24). Therefore, Christ declared, “any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33).
Following Christ is costly, but not doing so is even costlier. The unnatural, unregenerate mind, however, cannot understand this because all he sees is the things of this world, as he desires to satisfy the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. For that is where his treasure lies, and his heart is far from God. Unless he is spiritually regenerated by being made alive in Christ, he will not be able to understand the gains made by following Christ, and that no earthly treasure, wealth, or possession has any eternal value, since that is where his heart lies. As Christ said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).
How to Live in Divine Providence
How then shall one live in Divine Providence? The first step is assenting to the Sovereignty of God over all things, that all things were created by Him, for Him, and through Him. Knowing God’s Sovereignty gives one assurance that all things are for the divine good. Doing so is to have faith, the first theological virtue, that leads to the second which is hope, and the third, which is charity.
The second step is to surrender one’s whole life to God, renouncing the pursuit of the world and the things of this world, in knowing that all such things have no eternal value, counting them as a worthless, and knowing that to gain Christ is to gain everything. Since this is a matter of free will, one is fully responsible for doing so. This is to detach oneself from the world, and attach oneself to God and God alone. Only when one does so can one truly love Christ.
The third step is to follow the calling of God, to go where He wants one to go, and do what He wants one to do, humbly submitting to Him. This is what it means to be a faithful servant of God.
Lord, give us the strength to live in Divine Providence and to fully surrender to Your will. Amen.
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