Aug 14
9
PROVIDENTIAL OVERRULING
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God; to those who are the called according to his purpose.” — Romans 8:28
My soul! be still! You are in the hands of your Covenant God! Were all the strange circumstances in your history the result of accident, or chance — you might well be overwhelmed! But “all things,” and this thing (be what it may) which may be now disquieting you — is one of these “all things” that are so working mysteriously for your good. Trust your God! He will not deceive you — your interests are with Him in safe custody.
When sight says, “All these things are against me,” let faith rebuke the hasty conclusion, and say, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” How often does God hedge up your way with thorns — to elicit simple trust! How seldom can we see all things so working for our good! But it is better discipline to believe it. Oh! for faith amid frowning providences, to say, “I know that Your judgments are good;” and, relying in the dark, to exclaim, “Though He slays me — yet will I trust Him!”
Blessed Jesus! to You are committed the reins of this universal empire. The same hand that was once nailed to the cross — is now wielding the scepter on the throne, “all power in Heaven and in earth is given unto You.” How can I doubt the wisdom, and the faithfulness, and love, of the most mysterious earthly dealing — when I know that the Scroll of Providenceis thus in the hands of Him who has given the mightiest pledge Omnipotence could give — of His tender interest in my soul’s well-being, by giving Himself for me? John MacDuff.
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YOUR PRESENT ADVERSITY
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
It is palpably clear and emphatically true that all that occurs in the Lord’s government of His people conspires for, and works out, and results in, their highest happiness and their greatest good. The gloomiest and most painful circumstances in the history of the child of God, without a solitary exception, are all conspiring, and all working together, for his real and permanent good.
The painful and inexplicable dispensations, which at the present moment may be thickening and deepening around your path, are but so many mysteries in God’s government, which He is working out to their certain, satisfactory, and happy results. And when the good thus embosomed in the lowering cloud of some crushing providence, accomplishes its benevolent and heaven-sent mission, then trial will expand its dark pinions and fly away—and sorrow will roll up its somber drapery and disappear!
All things under the government of an infinitely great, all-wise, righteous, and beneficent Lord God, work together for good. What that good may be—the shape it may assume—the complexion it may wear—the end to which it may be subservient—we cannot tell. To our dim view it may appear an evil, but to God’s far seeing eye it is a positive good. Oh, truth most divine! Oh, words most consolatory!
How many whose eye traces this page, it may be whose tears bedew it, whose sighs breathe over it, whose prayers hallow it, may be wading in deep waters, may be drinking bitter cups, and are ready to exclaim—”All these things are against me!” Oh no, beloved of God, all these things are for you! Do not be afraid! Christ restrains the flood upon whose heaving bosom He serenely sits. Christ controls the waters, whose sounding waves obey the mandate of His voice. Christ’s cloudy chariot is paved with love! Then, fear not! Your Father grasps the helm of your storm-tossed vessel—and through cloud and tempest will steer it safely to the port of endless rest!
Will it not be a real good, if your present adversity results in the dethronement of some worshiped idol? in the endearing of Christ to your soul? in the closer conformity of your mind to God’s image? in the purification of your heart? in your more thorough fitness for heaven? Will it not be a real good if it terminate in a revival of God’s work within you—in stirring you up to more prayer? in enlarging your heart to all that love the same Savior? in stimulating you to increased activity for the conversion of sinners, for the diffusion of the truth, and for the glory of God?
Oh yes! good, real good, permanent good must result from all the Divine dispensations in your history. Bitter repentance shall end in the experienced sweetness of Christ’s love. The festering wound shall but elicit the healing balm. The overpowering burden shall but bring you to the tranquil rest. The storm shall but quicken your footsteps to the Hiding Place. The bitter-cold north wind and the balmy south wind shall breathe together over your garden, and the spices shall flow out.
In a little while—oh, how soon! you shall pass away from earth to heaven, and in its clearer, serener light shall read the truth, often read with tears before, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Octavius winslow
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“that all things work together for good”
Every word here is pregnant with blessed import: we could not part with a single syllable. And yet, what an exalted view does it give us of the wisdom, providence. and power of God! Look at this complicated scene. Here are God s people, surrounded by a thousand mysterious circumstances, travelling in the various paths of life-station, age, sex, circumstances, all widely different. Here is the world lying in wickedness around them-a crafty adversary ever on the watch to beguile or harass them, -a heart full of sin to overflowing, except as kept down by the mighty power of God! Look at all our varied circumstances; and then to believe that if we are the lovers of God, all things we experience are working together for our spiritual good, what a view does it give us of the wisdom, grace, and power of a wonder-working God! Let us bear with all our weight upon the text: it will bear all the strain that we can put upon it. “All things!” Look at that! All that concerns our body and soul; everything in providence, everything in grace; everything you have passed through, everything you are passing through, everything you shall pass through.
Let each of you who love God, and fear his name in this congregation, take everything belonging to you, and lay it upon this text, as you might lay hymn-books and Bibles on the table before me. There is not a single thing in providence or grace that concerns any person in this congregation who loves God that the promise cannot bear. “All things! all things!” What! is there not a single thing, however minute, however comparatively unimportant, that is not for my good if I love God? No, not one. If there were a single thing, this text would not be true; God would speak an untruth. If there were a single thing which befalls me, be it in providence, or be it in grace, that is not working together for my good, if I am a child of God, I say it with reverence, that this would be a lie in God s book. And yet, when we consider the variety of things that affect us-to believe that all of them are working together for our good, how must we admire the wonderful wisdom, and power, and government of God. philpot