Heidelberg Catechism Devotional Q28

Q.28. How does the knowledge of God’s creation and providence help us?

A. We can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well, and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing will separate us from his love.  All creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will they can neither move nor be moved.

Monday

Everyone experiences difficulties and hardships.  Not long ago an investment of mine went very sour.  I lost money and in the midst of praying and asking God, “Why?”, these words kept coming to my mind: “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.” Job spoke them after suffering great loss.  They are sobering words, but they are also comforting.  They allow us to meet difficult times knowing that God is still in control and that God’s plans and purposes for creation are not being violated but upheld.  Read Job 1:1-21 and gain an appreciation for Job’s words in the light of his great difficulty.

Tuesday

God’s complete control also gives us many reasons to be thankful. Because God is in control, when things go well in any area of our life, we can give thanks to our Lord.  Read Psalm 50:23.  Did you notice - thanks are part of the road of salvation?  That is because thanking God requires acknowledging his control over the situation and when we acknowledge his control, then we can also acknowledge his ability to defeat sin and any other difficulty or hardship that may come between us and salvation.   For what are you thankful? Tell God.

Wednesday

As we live longer and learn to settle into God’s providence, both the good and the bad, the Christian will become less anxious about the future. He or she will gain an assurance that what has been true in the past and present, will continue to be true in the future since our Lord never changes (Hebrews 13:8).  In fact this is why the Psalmist instructs us to ‘cast our cares on the Lord’ and why Paul tells us not to be anxious, for God is watching over every bit of our life.  Read Psalm 55:22 and Philippians 4:6-7.  How does recognizing God’s providence in the present, give you courage and trust to face the future?

Thursday

In 2004 I was separated from my wife for 9 weeks.  I was in Argentina; she was in the United States.  That separation seems unbridgeable.  All I wanted was to be near her, to hear her voice and feel her touch.  But time was against us.  The mission called and separation ensued.  Each of us has experienced similar situations, where something temporal keeps us apart.  The apostle Paul recognized this human reality, but in light of God’s providence he penned some words of encouragement.  Read Romans 8:38-39.  These words are living words.  They are words of truth that reflect God complete mastery of the cosmos and assure us that we will never be separated from his love. Providence guarantees it.

Friday

The proverbs give us a glimpse into God’s wisdom and ways.  Read Proverbs 22:1.  These words aren’t true for kings alone; they are true for everyone.  God directs every heart and every life.   He gives us passions and fears, and all of them are directed to his plans and his purposes.  He not only searches our heart, but he leads it to springs of life and experiences of death so that we learn and acknowledge that it is Christ who lives in and through us.  Read Philippians 2:12-13.

Saturday

As we come to the end of another week, the Apostle Paul’s evangelistic words in Acts 17:24-28 seem like an appropriate end.  Read them.   God is at work, orchestrating world events, like a conductor directs a symphony, so that the music is sweet.  And the sweetness of God’s providence is only realized when we seek him and find him.  May you seek God in everything this week, giving him thanks for the good and allowing him to sustain and refine you through the bad.