Aphid Pimples And The Providence Of God
When you think about God, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
A.W. Tozer said,
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
If you think about it, our definition of God will dictate the entirety of our lives. What we believe God loves or hates will shape the way we view the world, our society and our own lives. We will strive for and pursue what we believe to be in line with God’s will and disdain from what we believe God is against. Our view of God will shape our emotions and worship. It will cause to weep with tears because of His love for us or simply fall to our face in gratitude of the cross. What you think about God is the most important thing about you. It will dictate your life, for good or for bad, all based on your view of who He is.
One of the first things that pops into my head when I think about God is His incredible, sovereign providence over all His creation. It never ceases to amaze me when I think about how big God truly is. His power stretches into every aspect of life, even to the minutest detail. As a good friend of mine put it, God’s sovereign providence transcends to “the pimple on the aphid on the blade of grass.” Wonderfully put. God’s power controls all things and there is nothing that is outside of His perfect purpose. All things are under subjection to God’s omnipotent power and strength. Psalm 90:2 says,
Before the mountains were born or You brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God.
He is God. From everlasting to everlasting. He holds all things together by the power of His providence. Nothing happens outside of His divine control and there is none that can hold any amount of dominion over Him. Something we must consider is this, what would this power do to us? If we had the ability to enact our will and whim at our slightest inkling, think of the devastation we would wrought? Think for a moment of the tyrants we would become. Believe it or not, this is the slight that many bring against God. They will say, “if God is all-powerful, He cannot be all-good. If He is all-good, then He cannot be all-powerful.” This is the danger of thinking about God in human terms. This is the danger of forgetting the Gospel. Without the assurance of salvation, God’s ultimate power can seem like a very frightening thing. To the unbeliever, the knowledge of a supreme being that rules with utter surety to whom all will have to give an account, brings terror and dread. Without Christ, God’s power is a frightening thing indeed.
Yet for God’s elect, the story is different. Rest assured dear Christian, we serve a God that is both all-powerful and all-good. He sits enthroned in Heaven with the worship of angels, yet reaches down and gives us our daily bread. He sovereignly controls the seas and the patterns of the planet’s orbit, yet transcends to bring us peace. With all the power and all the sovereignty He has, He is no tyrant. He is a loving, gracious Father that saw us in our death and gave us Christ. This, dear Christian, is the true wonder of God’s sovereign providence. That He, with the power He possessed, would look on us and show love.
Charles Spurgeon put it this way,
The sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which the child of God rests his head at night, giving perfect peace.
We have this peace because of the Gospel. We have this peace because of Christ and His sacrifice for our sins. God’s providence brings us peace because we know that all things now work together for our good because we are called according to the purpose of God. There is nothing more comforting than knowing you are safe in the hands of God, the ruler of worlds. Remember this Christian. Remember this when you wake and when you work. When you rest and when you dream. When the wind blows and the storms seem too hard to weather, rest your head on the perfect pillow of God’s providence and be at peace. When the pain is too much and there seems to be no end in sight, remember the God you serve and cry out to him. Trust in His providence, it has all you need within it. And next time you see the blades of grass glistening in the sun or the tiny aphids going about their Master's work in the dirt, remember that the same God who created them and knows their number has you in the palm of His hand and He will never let you go.
