God’s providence in Refresh
Here is a small real life story to explain the providence of God.
It was a Saturday around 3 pm when me and Duncan had a chat over the phone with just 3 hours to our first in-person Refresh in 15 months. After prayer and careful considerations we decided to keep the “praise and worship” online instead of in-person because of a complex circumstance. This left us only 3 hours to transfer Duncan’s equipment from the church to his house and set everything and do a test run! Since this was the first time people will be sitting in-person in church (after the pandemic) I had planned to try a different setting with the cameras and projectors which required some additional testing. Also I normally spend an hour before every outreach to test the audio, video and also make final preparations for my sermon. So I was slightly worried in the corner of my mind about the time left and how I am going to fit everything in 3 hours. It was then a thought came to me that this is God’s outreach and he will provide everything we need.
In order to save time I told Duncan I will bring the equipments from the church to his house. So I started around 3:30 pm from the church to Duncan’s house in Stirling. I had been to Duncan’s house only once. I normally cannot drive without navigation unless it is a well known place. So I switched on my navigation in my phone and it didn’t work. I then realised I ran out of data in my phone the previous day (which never happened before). This was one of many setbacks I faced that day for the outreach. Thinking that I will somehow recollect the route from my memory, I said to myself “God will provide” and started to drive. As I was in M9 towards Stirling, I got confused and had no clue which exit to take. I was sure heading towards a “disaster” and about to mess up the route and put the whole outreach in danger as I wont be able to reach Duncan’s house or even back to church on time. But even at that time I said to myself that God will provide and was keeping myself calm. Then I felt that I should try the navigation again even though there was no way for it to work. When I switched on my phone navigation, to my surprise it started to work. I thought the data must have refreshed for the new month on time and I was so happy. With the help of navigation I reached Duncan’s house on time, handed the equipments and then started to drive back to church. The route back home was relatively easier and I didn’t seek the help of navigation. But I felt that I should test my phone again and so I switched on my navigation. To my surprise my phone said I don’t have any data left and it didn’t work. Confused, I reached the church on time and double-checked my phone again. I saw that my data was zero and there was no way my phone could have worked earlier on the road to Duncan’s house. My logical reasoning part of my brain kicked-in and I researched whether if there could be any other technical reason why my navigation worked briefly. But I couldn’t find any reasons.
That’s when God spoke to me and reminded me, “I am Jehovah Jireh and when you are doing my purpose and lack something I will provide. My grace is sufficient for you and my strength will be made perfect in your weakness“. Besides all the setbacks this brought a great inner peace and strength to me. Within an hour Duncan and I managed to set up everything and test it. After that I managed to test the audio, video (with few more technology setbacks which I somehow managed to resolve on time) and also prepared the sermon with just 5 minutes to spare for me to go home and take a sip of coffee before I returned to start the outreach on time.
After the outreach was over, the two ladies who came all the way from Stirling thanked me and explained how they really needed to be there that evening. They felt it was all worth it that they came to this outreach by taking a train. There were also many others who watched it online and were greatly encouraged and shared it to their friends.
As I left home that night, a quote from Billy Graham came to my mind. “God did not call us to be successful in a worldly sense but only to be faithful to him“. God encouraged me that night that Duncan and I remained faithful that night and because of that he was able to touch the people who watched it. God also said that the miracle “on the road to Duncan’s house” was an assurance that God is interested in this outreach and it is important for Him. It reminded me of the “fleece miracle” God did for Gideon in his weakness to assure Gideon that he is important to God.
Talking about God’s providence John Piper wrote ‘the Latin behind pro-vide means, “take the steps to make sure it happens.” It is God’s seeing to everything. Absolutely everything that needs to be done to bring about his purposes, God sees to it that it happens. Isaiah 46:10: “[I declare] the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’” In other words, “I will see to it.” See to it — pro-vide. “I will provide. I will see to it that everything works together for the goals that I have for the world.””
Doing God’s work is like climbing a big mountain. We need to take every step by faith. When we slip and fall God will be there with his net called “Jireh” to catch us. When we grow tired, his “strength will be made perfect in our weakness”. Every step is important and so is every people’s lives changed in this journey. When we reach the top we can be assured that the view will be spectacular and God will say, “well done good and faithful servant”!
