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Purpose & Providence!
Spurgeon, "The Hairs of Your Head Numbered"
Everything is in the Divine purpose, and has
been ordered by Divine wisdom. All the events
of your life- the greater, certainly; and the
smaller, with equal certainty.
It is impossible to draw a line in Providence
and say this is arranged by Providence and
that is not. God's Providence takes everything
in its sweep- all that happens.
Divine Providence determines not only
the movement of a star, but the blowing
of a grain of dust along the public road.
God's Providence knows nothing of things
so little as to be beneath its notice, nothing
of things so great as to be beyond its control.
Nothing is too little or too great for God to
rule and overrule. All that a man undergoes
is also ordained of Heaven.
God ordained....
when we would be born;
where we would be born;
who our parents would be;
what our lot in infancy would be;
what our path in youth would be; and
what our position in manhood would be.
From the first to the last it has all happened
according to the Divine purpose, and ordained
by the Divine will.
Not only the man but all that concerns the man,
is foreordained of the Lord- "The very hairs of
your head," that is to say, all that has anything
to do with you, which comes into any kind of
contact with you and is in any sense part and
parcel of yourself, is under the Divine foresight
and predestination.
You shall neither die before your time, nor
live beyond it. All that concerns you, from
first to last, all that is of you and in you
and around you, is in the Divine purpose.
Fate is hard and cruel, but predestination
is fatherly and wise and kind.
When we see that all things are arranged
by Him who orders all things according to
the counsel of His own will, then we bow
our heads and worship.
Our happiness lies very much in our complete
submission to the Lord our God. Oh, it is a
blessed thing when we know that God is ordering
all the events of Providence. Then we dissolve
our own will into the sweetness of His will and
our sorrow is at an end!
Since even the very hairs of our head are all
numbered; since everything is really ordained
by the Most High concerning His people, let
us rejoice in the Divine appointment, and take
all as it comes, and praise His name, whether our
allotment is rough or smooth, bitter or sweet.
Let us cheerfully say, "If the Lord wills it then
we will it, too. If He has purposed it, even so
let it be, since all things work together for
good to those who love God, even to those
who are called according to His purpose."
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