Steve Farrar - Articles

God's Providence

So what about providence?
 
Providence is God's execution of His plan in your life and in the entire universe. Have you ever heard the saying "the devil is in the details"? That is absolutely incorrect.
 
God is in the details:

  Oh Lord, you are my God;
  I will exalt you; I will praise your name,
  For you have done wonderful things,
  Plans formed of old, faithful and sure.
  (Isa. 25:1 ESV)

Are these plans that God hurriedly drew up last night to fix something in your life that has gone wrong? Is God looking for some "Plan B" because "Plan A" didn't pan out for us? No. These are plans He purposed before he created the world. God hasn't been up all night—papers and maps spread out across the floor of heaven, amending His purposes to it our present set of circumstances. No, the plans He has for you are His original plans. Perfect plans that never need to be amended. Now that’s a Big God.

—Steve Farrar

Steve Farrar is the author of ten books, including the
best-sellers Point Man and Finishing Strong.
Learn more at SteveFarrar.com

God's Plan

That plan in the midst of the storm could not be seen. In fact, at times, it seemed like God had abandoned you. Job knew what that was like. In his great loss and despair, he couldn’t find God anywhere:

  Oh, that I knew where I might find Him,
  That I might come to His seat!
  I would present my case before Him
  And fill my mouth with arguments . . .
  Behold, I go forward but He is not there,
  And backward, but I cannot perceive Him;
  When He acts on the left, I cannot behold Him;
  He turns on the right, I cannot see Him.
  (Job 23:3–4, 8–9)

That must have been what Joseph experienced as he took that long camel ride—his chains clanging every step of the way—down to Egypt and a life of never-ending slavery.

The sovereignty of God means that He is King and He is in absolute control; and it also means that we are not.

Joseph addressed his brothers not as a victim but as a victor. How could he not be caught up in bitterness and revenge? When he looked back over his life, he saw the absolute control of God working His eternal plan in every event of his life—the good and the bad. It was all under the sovereign control of the great God of Israel.

—Steve Farrar

Steve Farrar is the author of ten books, including the
best-sellers Point Man and Finishing Strong.
Learn more at SteveFarrar.com

He Is in Control

The sovereignty of God means that He is in control—of everything.

That’s why He is a BIG GOD.  And that’s why He is a GREAT GOD.
 
This means that when we look around and get the very strong sense that the world and our lives are out of control, we are wrong. It may appear to us that events have jumped the tracks and headed over the cliff, but in truth they are moving absolutely on schedule according to His divine plan and purpose.

It was John Flavel who said to his congregation in England, some three hundred years ago, "Some providences of God, like Hebrew letters, are best understood backwards."

So, too, does the providence of God.
 
Some chapters of our lives make absolutely no sense. We get blindsided by some tragedy, and we wonder where God is. It just doesn’t add up! Where is this God who loves me, and why has He allowed this to happen? You and I can ask those kinds of questions over and over again, but the fact of the matter is that these confusing chapters won’t make sense while we're in the middle of them.

In these bewildering chapters of life you will have to give five, ten, or even twenty years before things begin to make sense. Only then, like Joseph looking backward, do some providences of God become crystal clear. When we look backward, we see that God was in control even when it looked like our lives were out of control. Oftentimes, we can't see that providence until we get through the storm and look behind us. You look back and can't believe you survived the ferocity of that storm. But you did. And it was all due to the goodness and plan of God.

—Steve Farrar

Steve Farrar is the author of ten books, including the
best-sellers Point Man and Finishing Strong.
Learn more at SteveFarrar.com