Rest your head on the ‘soft pillow of God’s providence’

Family, finances, the state of the church, the latest Bill being discussed in Parliament, war in Ukraine… the list of things we could worry about is endless.

I worry when I feel out of control, when the illusion that I can smooth out the wrinkles of life for myself and those whom I love shatters, when some event reminds me that I was never in control in the first place.

In those moments, what do we do? We remind ourselves again that our lives are in our Father’s hands. We trust in God’s providence – His sovereign power sustaining and governing the universe ‘for the good of His people and the glory of His name’ (Melvin Tinker).

God’s providence reaches to the ends of the universe and is all-embracing, no one and nothing lies outside of His care. It includes the smallest detail of our lives. He knows the number of hairs on our head (Matt10:30). It encompasses every gamechanging moment of history: ‘He makes nations great, and destroys them; he enlarges nations, and disperses them’ (Job 12:23). And it covers the greatest secrets of the galaxy. God knows the name of every star (Isa. 40:26).

God’s providence even extends to the actions of His enemies. Remember Peter and John, after their first stint in prison for speaking about Jesus, prayed with fellow-believers – not for peace and the removal of persecution but for boldness to witness – acknowledging that: ‘Herod and Pontius Pilate … did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen’ (Acts 4:27-28).

Providence does not mean that the bad things that happen to us are actually good, neither does it absolve us of responsibility for our actions or allow us to sit back and be idle, ‘letting go and letting God’. But it does mean that whatever happens to us or in our world we can be confident that God knows about it, has allowed it and is using it for His purpose and glory. It means God ‘works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will’ (Eph.1:11).

The Heidelberg Catechism asks: ‘What do you understand by the providence of God?’ And the powerful reply is: ‘Leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed all things come not by chance but by His fatherly hand.’ It is no wonder that the Puritans called God’s providence a ‘soft pillow’ upon which we can lay our heads.

God’s providence cannot be unpicked and completely understood, it will remain a mystery until all God’s plans are fully revealed. In the meantime, knowing that the God who governs all of creation and history loves us and is sovereignly working out ‘all things’ for our good and His glory (Rom.8:28) ‘humbles human pride, intensifies human worship, shatters human hopelessness, and puts ballast in the battered boat of human faith, steel in the spine of human courage, gladness in the groans of affliction, and love in the heart that sees no way forward’ (John Piper).

In short, the antidote to worry (and many other things) is trusting in God’s providence – that He is God, and I am not.

Elizabeth McQuoid is Commissioning Editor for Keswick Ministries and part of Deeside Christian Fellowship in Aberdeen, an independent evangelical church.