Up until this week we’ve had a warm fall. The leaves remained on the trees in the subdued hues of the South a lot longer than usual. Since at my age it is hard to keep warm even in warm weather, this is an added blessing. Now, I can look forward to a shorter period of cold, DV.
Interesting how weather itself can in many ways regulate the way we act from day to day—how we dress, whether or not we go swimming, what we eat and drink (Noodle soup on cold days), etc. And Who controls the weather? The One, of course, who determined that we would have changes in weather, and what and when these would occur. If one factor in our lives—weather—can do so much to affect us, think how many other factors there are at work in God’s world that, providentially, guide our paths from day to day.
“Oh, Adams is writing about providence again,” is what some are thinking. Yes, and I hope it won’t be the last time! Providence—as I indicated in my latest book, Together for Good, is the way in which day by day God personally brings to pass those things He planned from eternity. And, in Romans 8:28, He makes it clear that for the Christian, those things work together for his good.
There are few consolations that a counselor can bring to a counseling session that can equal those that grow out of the doctrine of providence. We can’t always see how God does it, but He is bringing all the multitude of factors that occur together, in a harmony existing in His mind, that, in often quite curious ways, He intends for the benefit of every believer. Because we can’t know the future, and because we can’t control it, we must learn to trust His explanation of pain, misfortune, tragedy and the lot (as well as the more joyous happenings) as “good” in the long run.
So, weather [intentional spelling] or not, we thank Him for it—whatever it may be. That is the goal of every biblical counselor—to help his counselees understand this precious doctrine and to apply it to every circumstance of life. Just as Greg Dawson did in the book mentioned above. I couldn’t live in contentment without becoming furious with God if I didn’t believe in His providential working. Think carefully about providence; understand it thoroughly; teach it to your counselees so that they may learn to apply it to their circumstances; also help them learn to thank God day by day for their lot in life.