Living a Providential Life: Discovering Providential Qualities to Live By

By Bill Winscott

Is the idea of God’s providence as applied to your life a mystery to you?

Do you feel comfortable with your knowledge of the biblical description of Christian qualities outlined with God’s providence?

Living a providential life is described throughout the Bible to give Christians the unmistakable way of living with the qualities God has outlined for us.

Let us explore the whole concept of God’s providence from the grand sweep presented in the Bible. We will then focus on applying the magnificent examples of the people found in scripture, provided by God, to our own lives. Just the incredible scope of this process is revealing as we look at God’s providence in the Bible and in our world. As you examine how all creation, including humans, is involved in an infinitely complex process to support God’s will, you will have a better grasp on how you fit into all this.

You are invited to learn about how one hundred qualities of a Christian’s life reflect the attributes of a believer in Jesus Christ. These qualities will reflect God’s gifts, which every Christian can and should reflect in this world. Explore the scriptural basis for each of these qualities, how they are reflected in scripture, and how you can make them part of your life. Live a providential life in Jesus Christ!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jun 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9781973629658

Bill Winscott

Bill lives with his wife Carol and two Westie dogs in the Hill Country of Texas. He has a Christian background as a seminary graduate in theology, pastor, student and teacher. Bill's experience also includes being a business owner, business manager, military officer , medical technologist and medical manager. Bill and Carol have five children and eight grandchildren.

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ISBN: 978-1-9736-2964-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-2966-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-2965-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018906257

WestBow Press rev. date: 09/09/2019

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CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

SECTION ONE

The Nature of Providence

CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS PROVIDENCE?

Providence and the Bible

Use of Providence in the Apocrypha

The Many Aspects of Providence the Bible Reveals

Limits to Understanding God’s Providence

CHAPTER 2 SCRIPTURAL OBSERVATIONS ON

THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD

Observations of God’s Providence in Scripture

CHAPTER 3 PROVIDENCE IN NATURE

Providence and the Universe

Providence and Animals

Providence and the Natural Forces and Elements of the Universe

CHAPTER 4 ARE THERE TYPES OF PROVIDENCE?

SECTION TWO

God, Trinity, Scripture and Providence

CHAPTER 5 GOD AND PROVIDENCE

Providence and the Attributes of God

How Providence is Consistent with God’s Attributes

The Central Importance of God’s Providence

CHAPTER 6 THE DIRECTION OF ALL THINGS

Revelations of God’s Character and Relationship to Humans

How God Works to Direct All Things

CHAPTER 7 PROVIDENCE AND THE TRINITY

SECTION THREE

Providence and the Effect on Humans

CHAPTER 8 HOW DOES THE PROVIDENCE OF

GOD EFFECT HUMANS?

Providence in History

Providence in the Present

Providence in the Future

Providence in Prayer

Providence in Miracles

CHAPTER 9 ANGELS AND GOD’S DIVINE PROVIDENCE

Providence in Angels

CHAPTER 10 EVIL, SIN AND PROVIDENCE

SECTION FOUR

Providence in Our Lives

CHAPTER 11 GOD’S PROVIDENCE IN OUR LIVES

The Qualities of Providential Living

God’s Nature and the Effect It Has In Our Lives

The Existence and Nature of Our God in the Trinity

The Trinity’s Relationship to Man

CHAPTER 12 PREPARING FOR PROVIDENTIAL LIVING

Living A Providential Life Study

A Providential Life Review

Suggestions for Extra Study

CHAPTER 13 LIVING PROVIDENTIALLY

Summary Applications for the Providential Life

EPILOGUE

BIBLIOGRAPHY

DEDICATION PAGE

I dedicate this book with great pride and joy to my five children: Jenny, Chelsey, Abby, Holly and John and six grandsons: Will, Winston, Bryce, Gideon, Elijah and Samuel. They fill the hearts of my wife and I with love and life.

I also dedicate this book to all the members of the church that I pastored in Moriarty, New Mexico.

EPIGRAPH

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

The professionals that have handled every phase of this production at West Bow Press have graciously guided me through the process here. The team includes many, many professionals that have assisted me with special acknowledgement that goes to Jon Lineback, Publishing Specialist and Venus Gamboa, Check-in Coordinator. These individuals have helped me in so many ways and made this publication a reality.

My family have been an encouragement and source of inspiration in this process. This includes my five children and six grandchildren and their spouses. My wife, Carol, has been a reliable and rock-solid source of support for me over the months and years of the composition of this work. I have been truly blessed in order to work on this book.

INTRODUCTION

The providence we receive from God is all-important. Without this providence the world would not continue as it functions now for one second of time. Of course, we take all of this for granted as we go about our daily lives. It is the premise of this book that we should take time to reflect upon the providence of God and how to apply it to our lives. This grace and blessing of God’s providential will is a wonderful thing to reflect upon and is really essential for a number of reasons to those that live the Christian life.

The central theme here will be to identify many of the qualities that God has provided the believers of Jesus Christ. Each of these qualities will be identified through how the Bible describes and gives examples of them. The combination of all of these qualities define what the believer of Jesus Christ should reflect in the world. Scripture tells us to be transformed from the ways of this world. These Christian qualities are all foreign to the ways of this world. We are encouraged to change our way of thinking as part of this transformation process. Few things will change our way of thinking more effectively than to adopt the Christian qualities to our own lives. The focus here is to make the reader aware of these qualities, what they mean in the Biblical sense, provide a method to review and study them and be able to apply them to their lives. It is my hope that every reader can benefit from this to become a better believer and witness for Jesus Christ.

Why should one contemplate a providential life? This preliminary question must precede the following in order to establish the purpose for this subject. The answer is multi-dimensional but integrated into a strongly providential theme. The purpose here can be described in overview as follows:

1. It is good to consider the scope and magnificence of the providence of God.

2. The study of how God’s providence effects humans and the creation is a most useful consideration every day for those that believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior.

3. A knowledge of God’s providence is necessary to comprehend the world and history.

4. An understanding of creation, nature and the universe is greatly enhanced through the study of God’s providence.

5. Scripture is better grasped and appreciated when God’s providence is factored into the summary of its understanding.

6. Understanding God’s providence positively impacts our Christian discernment of people, nature, and happenings in our world.

7. God’s love and Christ’s mission on earth cannot be fully understood or appreciated without examining the providence that comes from God.

8. Understanding God’s providence is part of a person’s foundation for belief in God and our faith in Christ.

9. By understanding God’s providence better and applying it to our lives we will be able to better conform to the will of God and how the decisions and actions of our life more closely work within it.

10. The study of the qualities of God’s providence in the Christian believer will help us become better Christians every day and with regular review and study of these qualities remain a Christian that is more in tune with Scripture.

It is my purpose that the above mentioned areas of consideration will be made clear and become useful as you endeavor to live every day as a Christian. May this study become one of excitement, exploration and revelation as you investigate the living of a providential life.

SECTION ONE

The Nature of Providence

CHAPTER ONE

What is Providence?

The word providence does not appear in the pages of the Bible, yet it paints a broad swath throughout as an identification of God’s action in the world’s history. The clear meaning of providence is evident from Genesis to Revelation. We cannot really understand the Bible apart from the concept of God’s providence. God is present in his action in the world of man throughout scripture. We can therefore define providence as, God’s action in achieving his purpose. God made this definition clear through the coming of Jesus Christ into the world. This achieved clarification of the purpose of God and how it is to be achieved. Our conformance to the will of God through the modeling of our lives after the example of Christ is the supreme act of God’s action in our lives to achieve his purpose.

The definition of providence as found in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary is centered around a religious or theological rendering. It has content reading: divine guidance or care, an act or instance of such guidance or care, the quality or state of being provident or exercising foresight, and God conceived as that ultimate reality whose sustaining power and ordering activity provide continual guidance over the matters of human destiny. This definition is a little surprising in its theological foundations from a neutral and secular source. The contents of this definition builds upon our original definition and gives us the more general understanding of the concept of providence.

PROVIDENCE AND THE BIBLE

Although the word providence does not appear in the protestant Bible canon, it is found in the apocrypha and its presence there should be noted. It is found six times in the various books of the apocrypha (see Wisd. of Sol. 14:3; 17:2, once in 1 Esd. 6:5, twice in the book of 3 Macc. 4:21; 5:30 and three times in the book of 4 Macc. 9:24; 13:19; 17:22 NRSV). The meaning within the context of each of these appearances all refer to the action and/or will of God in the lives of humans. This providential action can refer to the lawless as in The Wisdom of Solomon or to the good Jewish ancestors (see 4 Macc. 9:24). In all of these references one receives the idea of God exercising total control of human events. The 4 Maccabees reference is particularly important in its theological revelation: And through the blood of those devout ones and their death as an atoning sacrifice, divine providence preserved Israel that previously had been mistreated (4 Macc. 17:22 NRSV). The word providence here could be used by Hebrew writers as a word synonymous with the word God of the Old Testament. The two concepts are inextricably tied together in these apocryphal writings.

Divine intervention is a common theme of God’s providence found throughout the Bible. It occurs in dramatic fashion with the creation story of Genesis and ends with the new Jerusalem and the promise that the Son of God would return soon in the book of Revelation. The Bible is overflowing with examples of the providence of God. Let’s quickly examine a few of the most striking and important examples. Exodus gives an example of God directly speaking to Moses. The Lord said to Moses, ‘Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction’ (Ex. 24:12 ESV). Here is God in direct conversation with Moses preparing for action intervention in the form of the Ten Commandments to instruct humankind in the laws that would play a critical part in the purpose of God. The story of Esther gives witness to the providence of God at work in her life as she became Queen Esther and insured the welfare of the Jews along with Mordecai during the period of King Ahasuerus. The dramatic challenges and responses found in the final chapters of Job clarify the roles of human and the divine in the question of providence. The book of Job has an explanation of human’s proper answer to the providence of God.

Then Job answered the Lord and said: "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes. (Job 42:1-6)

The book of Psalms is full of examples of the providence of God and contains so many examples of God’s providence in many manifestations. A splendid example of this is in the Psalms:

Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end. The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you. (Ps. 102:25-28)

The God of Israel is active and moves throughout scripture towards the inevitable divine purpose. Jeremiah gives evidence to God’s divine love for his people and the resulting action of faithfulness and the building of his people.

the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel! Again you shall adorn yourself with tambourines and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers. (Jer. 31:3–4)

This entire chapter in Jeremiah is one of a multi-dimensional display of God’s providence for his people. In addition to God’s great love revealed here we see the revelation of his great hope for the future of his people through a new covenant. God describes here how he will write his law on their hearts. The fulfillment of the new covenant is made evident in the book of John where Jesus says: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, And they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. (see John 6:44-45). God actively fulfills his providential promise to build his people through the teaching of God in the form of Jesus Christ.

USE OF PROVIDENCE IN THE APOCRYPHA

We need to examine the use of the word providence in the Apocrypha as there is no direct word translation in the Bible canon. The Wisdom of Solomon is a book in the Apocrypha that does contain one example of the use of the word providence, but it is your providence, O Father, that steers its course, because you have given it a path in the sea (Wis. of Sol. 14:3 NRSV). The idea of providence here is one of guidance and direction for a sailing over the raging waves of the sea that provides safety from danger. 3 Maccabees provides a powerful example of providence: But this was an act of the invincible providence of him who was aiding the Jews from heaven (3 Macc. 4:21 NRSV). This act of invincible providence will save the Jews from destruction because of the intercession from heaven. This all occurs at a critical point in history when the Greek King Ptolemy Philopator has the Jews deported to Alexandria and imprisoned. Miraculously, a plot by the king to destroy the Jews through the trampling of elephants is thwarted twice through the intervention of God.

The word providence is used three times in 4 Maccabees. We find a use of the word that has foundations in the Hellenistic thought of the Stoics. You are not ignorant of the affection of family ties, which the divine and all-wise Providence has bequeathed through the fathers to their descendants and which was implanted in the mother’s womb (4 Macc. 13:19 NRSV). This thought of Stoics in the inter-testament period gives great attention to providence (pronoia) and fate. The strong immanence of God is a key factor here and works for the corresponding prominence of providence in the inter-testament historical writings.

THE MANY ASPECTS OF PROVIDENCE THE BIBLE REVEALS

The concept of providence in the Bible is common, although the use of the word is absent. This concept of God’s providence echoes throughout the Bible in many forms that are all directly related to God’s action in the world to accomplish his purpose. There can be little doubt that the entire Bible is largely a manifestation of this concept. After all, the Bible is a powerful tool of God for the accomplishing of his purpose.

Among the concepts related to providence that may be considered here are: foreknowledge, predestination, omniscience, divine intervention, free will, will of God, salvation, preservation, sovereignty, prayer, miracles, and evil. There are many other concepts too, of course; however these constitute some of the most basic and primary ones. Some of these mentioned concepts have been considered as the very definition of providence in the past by some. Providence represents many things to many people within the context of God’s actions in achieving his purpose. This can cover a lot of actions and methods to achieve God’s purpose.

Foundationally, let us begin a discussion of these concepts with the definition of providence and where it came from originally. The word providence has its origin in the Greek and Latin words that mean foresee, anticipate or to see ahead. One can correctly assume that providence involves foreseeing or anticipation of what is ahead. If one agrees with this assumption it follows that many of these previously mentioned concepts relate to foreseeing or anticipation. This would seem to be the case when we read through this list: foreknowledge, predestination, omniscience, divine intervention, free will, will of God, salvation, etc. God knows, cares and loves his creation and anticipates the needs with resulting, necessary actions.

We need to take care that this anticipation is not turned into something that it is really not. First, God does not cause the actions of everything in his creation. This would eliminate the freedom of man that is granted to him as is reflected throughout scripture. The first few words of God to man commanded freedom to him (see Gen. 2:16). The providence of God is designed to accommodate the freedom of man. The scriptures are full of examples of humans ignoring or running counter to the purpose of God. Many times after the error has run its course God exerts punishment and/or brings the human back through God’s grace. Second, the plan of God is not always evident and the love and caring of God as well as his purpose may be totally absent in the present. However, the long-term historical perspective many times reveals the providential nature of the human events, although