Provide – ence

Often times, we wonder why things happen the way they do. It just doesn’t make sense – to us. But we must realize that we’re actually going through this life with “blinders” on. Blinders are what farmers would put on their plow horses to keep them from seeing anything except what is right in front of them. With no peripheral vision – they can only move straight forward, plowing a straight row. That’s how we are – we can only see what is right in front of us – but God can see everything around us. He can see all of the possibilities that life can bring that we can’t see. As Paul Harvey would put it – He knows – “the rest of the story.” And most importantly, He has promised us that “All things work together for good for those that love Him and are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). Do you believe that?

So, there are times when things happen that we don’t understand. Esther probably wondered why she had been chosen to be queen, but Mordecai reminded her that perhaps “who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14). It was “providence” that God put her in the right place at the right time. He “provided” the way for her to save her people from extinction. I imagine that Joseph kept going over and over in his mind as to why his brothers would sell him as a slave and he would end up in prison in Egypt, so far from home and his beloved father. But, he came to realize that “God had sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance” (Genesis 45:7). God provided a way.

Why do things happen in our lives the way they do? Perhaps He is once again using “provide-ence” with us. He will do His part. Our part is to let Him use us to do His will. Simply blessed, Courtney