There are so many instances of this...that I guess we (at least "I") take it for granted. Here are a couple of late that have been a great blessing to me:
1. As many of you know, I have been preaching through the gospel of Luke. Each week God amazes me with His Word! This past Sunday we found ourselves at the beginning of Luke 11, which happens to be the Lord's Prayer. So, on Father's Day we found ourselves starting a study on the Lord's Prayer which begins with the words "Our Father"...so in summary, on Father's Day the text we "happened" to fall on led us to a study on the "Fatherhood of God". What better subject could there be for us to study on Father's Day!! Our God knows what we need and His timing is always perfect!
2. These past two Sundays my thoughts have been on God's adopting love. I have been overwhelmed by the fact that "if I love God it is because He first loved me". This past Sunday morning I mentioned this and quoted Charles Spurgeon on this subject. Here is the quote (in case you werent there...or in case you dont remember...or in case you fell asleep...or in case...you can fill in the blank):
"I once knew a good woman who was the subject of many doubts, and when I got to the bottom of her doubt, it was this: she knew she loved Christ, but she was afraid he did not love her. 'Oh!' I said, 'that is a doubt that will never trouble me; never, by any possibility, because I am sure of this, that the heart is so corrupt, naturally, that love to God never did get there without God’s putting it there.' You may rest quite certain, that if you love God, it is a fruit, and not a root. It is the fruit of God’s love to you, and did not get there by the force of any goodness in you. You may conclude, with absolute certainty, that God loves you if you love God."
You see 'naturally, left to myself, I ignore God, defy God, and despise God'. We would never turn to God on our own. This is summed up well in the following words written by Josiah Conder in the late 1800's:
My Lord, I did not choose You
For that could never be
My heart would still refuse You
Had You not chosen me
You took the sin that stained me
You cleansed me, made me new
Of old You have ordained me
That I should live in You
Unless Your grace had called me
And taught my darkened mind
The world would have enthralled me
To Your glories I’d be blind
My heart knows none above You
For Your rich grace I thirst
I know that if I love You
You must have loved me first
Now...back to my point about the Providence of God. I quoted these words twice in the last 2 weeks. First, in our Sunday evening service on June 8th and then again during Sunday School in my address to the youth group. Both times I read it...I thought 'someone needs to take these words and set them to music and make a worship song out of it'. Well, last night I get an email from Sovereign Grace Music...which includes a new cd offer. This cd is made up of songs that were performed at the New Attitude Conference in
May I encourage you to keep an eye on how God is "in and over all things" and be sure and give Him the praise!
"For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen."
Romans 11:36
By the way:
You can find a free sample of this song and/or download the mp3 of this song for 99 cents at:
http://www.sovereigngracestore.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=M4230-08-51
