When we talk about miracles or providence, we are talking specifically about God taking action in the physical world to alter an event or situation to accomplish something for His children. This is the definition I am using in this chapter because it directly addresses God’s sovereignty. Specifically, it addresses this fundamental truth of His sovereignty: God has inherent authority, power, and ability to do whatever He wants. If God is truly sovereign, then there can be nothing outside His ability to accomplish. Where man may say, “I wish I could, but there is nothing more I can do,” that sentiment cannot be part of an all-powerful sovereign God’s vocabulary.
Here are the definitions I am using in this chapter. I mention them to ensure we are on the same page, so we don’t argue about apples and oranges. Everyone has their idea of what they mean when they use words like miracles and providence.
When I use the word miracle, I am referring to something violating God’s natural laws. I am not referring to an amazing or improbable event. I mean something impossible happens. Something that cannot be explained through science or nature because there is no explanation. I am also not referring to things that may stump us. Just because we don’t know how something happens doesn’t mean it’s a miracle. If I traveled back in time to the days of ancient Babylon, I might be able to give a dying man medicine to save his life. Just because the Babylonians won’t know what was happening doesn’t mean it was a miracle. The same is true for us. Just because we don’t understand how something happens doesn’t make it a miracle. A miracle occurs solely when the laws of nature are legitimately broken or suspended.
Neither am I using the word miracle to describe an amazing, intricate process that is stunningly complex and jaw-dropping. How many times have you heard about the “miracle of birth”? I get why we use language like this to describe something as amazing as creating life; however, it is still a natural process and not a bonified miracle. Miracles are things like walking on water. That just cannot happen. Things like raising a person from the dead (a bonified dead person, perhaps like someone who was in the grave for three or four days like Jesus and Lazarus were). That just cannot happen. Or things like feeding over 5000 people with five loaves and two fishes. That just cannot happen. And this chapter will not deal with the question, “Have miracles performed through man ceased?” I am going on the belief that God, in His sovereignty, has ceased doing miracles through men to confirm His word, but I believe God can and still does perform miracles according to His good pleasure.
Providence, on the other hand, is when God works through the natural laws to accomplish His purposes. Like a miracle, we are talking about things God brings about specifically through His actions, something that would not have happened had God not stepped in. I understand we often use this word broadly, such as God holds the universe together through His providence. While I agree 100% with this sentiment, we will use the word providence when God intervenes to alter something that will happen or to bring about something that will occur through natural ways. For example, if we are sick and pray for healing, God can choose to heal us through His providence by ensuring the right doctors are assigned to our case (go back to the chapter where we talked about God accomplishing His purposes through circumstances). But God can also make cancer disappear overnight by working a miracle. Some may not believe that God still works miracles today, and that’s okay if you believe that. I just don’t see any evidence this is true.
Concerning providence, God can help us meet the right mate, make the right friends, get a job, find the perfect place we need to raise our family, or a whole host of other things. These providences are often done because we prayed specifically for them, and God answered our prayers. These things would not have happened if God had not stepped in. Again, I understand that in the loosest definition, all things we have can be attributed to His providence. However, for this chapter, I am specifically talking about things that happen because God acted, which would not have happened if He had not acted.
But with providence, we must understand that because God is acting through natural means, we may not always be able to ascribe providence to Him where He altered our future directly. The Ecclesiastes writer says,
“Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11 ESV).
Time and chance happen to us all. But there are strong breadcrumbs that can lead us to know something has happened through the providence of God in our lives. If we pray for something and receive it, we can rightly attribute answered prayers to God’s providence. Or, if we can look back over a series of choices we made and circumstances that came about, the hindsight we have can be evidence of God’s providence, and it would be fitting to attribute this to God’s providence.
As we move through this chapter and look at miracles and providence, it would be a desperately sad condition if we ranked miracles and providence on a hierarchical scale. If we think that miracles are greater than providence or that providence is someway greater than miracles, we are missing what is going on. Miracles and providence are nothing more than conduits God uses to intervene on our behalf. The amazing thing is that God is working to make things happen for us, not how He chooses to do it. If my child is dying and God answers my prayers to save his life, does it matter if He brings in the only doctor with the skills to save my son (providence) or if He removed cancer from my son’s body overnight (miracle)? As a father, I will drop to my knees in thanksgiving that God has answered my prayers and saved my son’s life.
But let’s spend a little time confirming God is, indeed, powerful enough to do all He purposes. And in His sovereignty, He can choose what to do and what not to do concerning miracles and providences. Being powerful enough to work through providence and miracles is not in and of itself an attribute of sovereignty. Sovereignty means He, and He alone chooses whether or not to act through His providence or miracles. Our attitude toward God is often demonstrated not in His ability to act as we may desperately want Him to act, but in silent response to our pleadings and prayers.
Let’s look at a few passages that may help us work on our attitude as we also look at His ability. Our first stop will be the book of James. Here James talks about the importance of keeping the Lord’s will in mind:
“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”-- yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:13-15 ESV).
I understand that this is talking specifically about someone who makes plans without even thinking about the Lord (See also Luke 12:13-21), but as James says, we need to learn how to live while always saying, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” While this often seems evident to us when things are going well, sometimes we forget when we bring something to the Lord we desperately want Him to do for us, especially when it is tearing at our hearts. In the moments of our deepest despair and hurt, we often forget, “if the Lord wills.” If God does not answer when we know He is capable of answering, we are sometimes tempted to accuse or blame God for something that is not right.
Have we studied about anyone like this already? Isn’t this what Job did? Job didn’t understand why God was letting Him suffer and demanded God explain Himself. Even amidst his deepest suffering, God taught Job He was sovereign and owed Job no answers. The hard truth for us to come to terms with is that, in the end, God is sovereign in choosing how to answer our prayers. God has never promised He would remove all sorrow and pain from our lives, but He has promised He would teach us how to be a new person when we walk through sorrow and pain. He has not promised to keep us from experiencing hardships, but He has promised we will not have to experience hardships alone. God’s decision not to answer our prayers through miracles or providence does not demonstrate a lack of love for us; instead, it is a testament to His sovereignty. Perhaps He is ready to show His love for us in some other way than the specific request we have of Him. Sometimes, when we are hurting the most, it is most challenging to say in our hearts, “not my will, but Yours be done.”
But there is still an amazing thing that being a child of God affords us. I firmly believe our prayers can change the will of God. While we should have a heart that we will always subject our will to His, isn’t one of the purposes of prayer to see if God will, perhaps, bend or change His will because of our petitions to Him? Don’t we seek His providence or even miracles in our lives every time we pray? And is it possible that He will sometimes grant our prayers as His children even if it was not what He intended for us?
We have already looked at a few cases demonstrating that our petitions to God can move Him to change what He intended for us. Do you remember Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20? God said, “Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.” (2 Kings 20:1). Verse one also says God sent Isaiah to Hezekiah to deliver this message, But Hezekiah prayed, and the Lord heard. Based on His petition, the Lord changed His will about Hezekiah and added 15 years to his life.
What about the case of David in 2 Samuel 12? For context, David had sinned with Bathsheba and killed her husband, Uriah. In this chapter, Nathan is sent to confront David and his sin. In a dramatic accusation, Nathan points the finger of guilt at David and says, “You are the man!” (2 Samuel 12:7). But notice what God says, through the prophet Nathan, in the very next verse:
“And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more.” (2 Samuel 12:8 ESV).
What is God saying to David? He is telling David He has provided abundantly for him. God even says, “And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more.” Even though God had chosen to bless David abundantly, had David asked for more, He would have changed what He had given David and added much more. It seems clear our prayers can have an amazing influence on our sovereign God, even to the point of convincing the almighty God, who can do all things, sometimes to change His will simply because we ask Him to do so.
Need more evidence? We talked about God’s anger toward Israel when they made the golden calf to worship in place of Him in Exodus 32. Do you remember what God told Moses in His anger? Let me remind you:
“Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.” (Exodus 32:10 ESV).
Let me ask you, did God mean what He said to Moses? Did He intend to consume Israel and start over with Moses? I would be very careful in indicating anything beyond what the text says lest I come too close to accusing the sovereign God of lying. I would take the text for what it says. So, if it was God’s will to consume Israel and start over with Moses, as God Himself said, then isn’t it amazing when we understand what effect Moses’ prayer had on God? His intercession for the people of Israel seemed to change God’s will. God relented the harm He intended for the people.
“And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.” (Exodus 32:14 ESV).
What did the Lord relent from? Clearly, He relented from what He intended to do to the people. He changed His will because a child simply asked. It was God’s sovereign prerogative to change His will or carry His will out. No one can ever force God to change His will. God is always able to change His will and has shown repeatedly He is open to the prayers of His people and our prayers can sometimes change His will. To some, it may sound too much to accept that our prayers can change the will of God. But we don’t have to look far to see this is precisely what can happen. And not only can it happen, but God often invites us to pray so that we can, if not change, at least move Him to set His will in line with our petitions. Some may think it presumptuous that our prayers can affect the will of God, and I agree God knows more than us. That’s why I believe the Scriptures point us to His sovereignty and not simply His will. If God chooses to answer or deny our request, it is because, in His sovereignty, He actively makes that decision, not merely because He has already decided. Otherwise, what is the purpose of verses like these:
“do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” (Philippians 4:6 ESV).
“Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.” (James 5:13 ESV).
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7 ESV).
“So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.” (Acts 12:5 ESV).
“Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray.” (Psalm 5:2 ESV).
“And he said, “O LORD, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham. Behold, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Let the young woman to whom I shall say, ‘Please let down your jar that I may drink,’ and who shall say, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels’--let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master.” Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, came out with her water jar on her shoulder.” (Genesis 24:12-15 ESV).
In all of these verses and the ones we looked at before, we have seen prayers that have caused God to change His mind, as well as prayers that have asked God to answer petitions (we do not know whether God’s will was changed or not). My point in mentioning all these things is we often forget God invites us to pray and asks what we want of Him. We do so because we know He has the power to accomplish all we ask, but we also do so respecting His sovereignty in whether to answer our petitions or not. There is never a situation so dire we should feel it’s too late to go to God for help.
God, if in His sovereignty chooses to answer our prayers with a “yes,” He will do so in whatever way He wishes. He can answer through providence, or He can answer through miracles. It is not up to us to dictate how God answers or even that He will answer us. It is up to us to ask and then respect His sovereignty and accept His will. This chapter is not as much about the mechanisms of God’s providence and miracles as it is about the attitudes behind the requests. We ask. God answers. We accept. This is the heart in which we bring our petitions to God. Just how much can our petitions move God? Listen to what James says:
“You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.” (James 4:2 ESV).
“You do not have, because you do not ask.” I sincerely desire that all of us appreciate the great gift we have in bringing our petitions before the most powerful, sovereign Being in existence, the Being Who is so sovereign He can do all that is in His heart. Nothing is too difficult for Him to accomplish. Nothing is too powerful to keep Him from achieving what He wants to accomplish. And this powerful, sovereign Being has whispered in our ear, “Ask Me what you want of Me.” We ask in faith, knowing He can do all things, and we submit to His sovereignty in the answers He gives.