Providential Circumstance
While individuals may refer to it by different names, the use of providential circumstance in the decision-making process of most modern-day Christians is widespread and profound. On closer inspection, however, the use of providential circumstance to determine the will of God is for many an ill-defined process that lacks any sense of consistency or uniformity. A common expression of providential circumstance comes in the form of God opening and closing the "doors" of a given situation. A door may represent an opportunity, an obstacle, or an event--be it positive or negative. When a door opens, one generally assumes it to be from God and seeks to enter through it. When a door closes, one tends to conclude that it "wasn't God's will," and so waits for another door (or "window") to open. This line of thinking can also manifest itself in a more pro-active sense, usually in terms of what God must do. For example, if God really wants me to go on that missions trip, He will need to provide all of the money I need. If the money shows up, this would confirm God's will and His hand of provision; if it doesn't, then the trip "must not have been His will."
Of course, the reality is that a given missions trip may or may not have been "God's will," irrespective of the financial situation. There is a fine line between recognizing the hand of God in a given situation and putting God "to the test" (Matthew 4:7, Luke 4:12). We will examine this case in more detail next week. For now, we focus on the philosophy of providential circumstance itself. One of the underlying problems with the use of providential circumstance in the average believer's life is the premise upon which it is founded, namely, that God has an expressed will for any and every situation. Ask a typical Christian, "Do you believe that God has a specific will for your life?" and the majority will say "Yes." But what does this mean? Does such a belief have any impact on the typical Christian's behavior? Every day, literally thousands of "doors" open and close. And every day we make hundreds of decisions, rarely consulting God on any of them. If one believes in providential circumstance, the issue quickly becomes a matter of trying to separate instances of divine intervention from ordinary happenstance and coincidence. When you awaken in the middle of the night is God trying to tell you something? Or should you just turn over and go back to sleep? The bottom line for most is a loosely held belief in God's specific will and divine intervention, but a practice of seeking it only in situations over which we are uncertain or have no overriding preference.
Dangers of Relying on Providential Circumstance
The problem with providential circumstance is that the vast majority of Christians are absolutely incapable of distinguishing between it and "circumstantial happenstance." Herein we find the danger of relying on what we think is providential circumstance--namely, the all too common human tendency to find what we're looking for. Given a multitude of unique events, when we sensitize ourselves to looking for a "sign," the chances are good we will find it. I am reminded of the story of the woman who was desperately seeking a sign as to whether or not she should go on a certain trip. She was hesitant about flying and continued to wrestle with the decision right up until the final day before her journey. On that morning she awoke suddenly and glanced at her clock. The time was precisely 7:47 AM. Her apprehensions vanished and she left brimming with confidence, secure in her "sign" from God that this trip was His will. And perhaps it was. But what if she had awoke at, say, 6:47 AM. Would it have been any more or less God's will? Or what about 7:27, 7:37, or 7:57? They're all planes right? You see the problem, of course. Ordinary events in our lives tend to take on a mystical quality when we need them to.
This is not to say that God does not intervene in our daily lives and circumstances. Indeed He does, both to bless and to bring about His will (cf. Jeremiah 10:23, Proverbs 16:9, 19:21). The point is that it is a very shaky foundation to base our decision-making process on what may or may not be divinely inspired circumstances. When God chooses to intervene visibly in our lives, we must remember that such action is by His initiative, not ours. We need not become preoccupied with analyzing our circumstances and trying to see how all the pieces might "fit together." Which brings us to a very familiar passage of scripture:
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
While this may come as good news to most believers, it is perhaps among the most misused scriptures in the Bible. Nowhere are we promised that we will ever visibly see how things are working for good. Or for that matter, whether they will even work together for good in this present age! Indeed, God is sovereign over our lives and the decisions we face. When we fail miserably in our decision-making process, God may still continue to bless us in whatever path we choose. But how bitterly ironic that many of us have used God's sovereignty as a club to beat back His leading in our lives. When things "work out for the good," we see it as a confirmation and a vindication of our decision. But often--more often than we realize--it is a sovereign redemption of our own wretched decision-making process. Remember: God's blessing does not equal God's approval. When things "work out for good," give the glory to God and recognize that it is most likely in spite of--and not because of--our actions and decisions.
Understanding this is key because if we believe in the sovereignty of God we must conclude that very few of our decisions (apart from moral and ethical choices) can be categorized as "good" or "bad." God continues His sovereign plan of sanctification despite a plethora of poor decisions in our lives. If you're looking for signs of a "good" or "bad" decision, you are looking in vain. Such signs should never be the focal point of our attention because they are generally misleading and subject to our own (mis)interpretation.
Self-Fulfilling Feelings
How many times have you heard the words "I knew this was going to happen," or "I had a bad feeling about this from the beginning." Often times we feel the same way, as though we had some "sixth-sense" about a given situation. Though we believe on an intellectual level that "no man knows the future" (Ecclesiastes 8:7), we nevertheless tend to trust our "gut feelings" more than we should. Often this is because they have seemingly proven reliable in the past. But have they? The reality is that at any given time our minds are awash with both positive and negative feelings. When a decision results a positive way, we tend to minimize or even forget the negative feelings we had prior to that time. Likewise, when a decision turns out negative we tend to focus much more on the negative feelings we had "from the beginning." All of those normal apprehensions are then transformed into unmistakable premonitions of the negative outcome.
Fooling ourselves in this way seems harmless enough, but it is not. In the end we unwittingly allow our apprehensions and anxieties to fulfill themselves in our actions and decisions. We would like to think of ourselves as unbiased and impartial in all situations, but the reality is that our actions are always affected by our intuition. And generally they are affected in a manner that tends to reinforce our "gut feeling." It's not that you won't be kind, forgiving, or understanding toward an individual just because you have a bad feeling about them. It's that you will be less kind, less forgiving and less understanding of that person's mistakes than you would be of someone toward which you had a "good feeling." Understanding this aspect of human nature is critical because of the reality that we may encounter situations where God's will and our emotions may be at odds. Look at the life of Moses. When God spoke to him from the burning bush, He made His will clear:
"So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt." (Exodus 3:10)
In studying the response of Cornelius to the angel of God last week, the reaction of Moses seems almost comical:
But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" (v. 11)
He then goes on to ask God questions--what if I go to the Israelites and they haven't heard of you? (v.13) What if they don't believe me? (Exodus 4:1) God responds by instructing Moses on what to say and by providing him with an ability to perform miraculous signs. But Moses still has reservations:
Moses said to the LORD, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue." The LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say." But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it." Then the Lord's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it." (Exodus 4:10-17)
Were Moses to have relied on his "gut feeling" about this assignment, he would have never gone forth with it. The point is not that we should ignore our intuition, but rather, that we should understand it and recognize that there is no reason to expect we will feel good about every decision we make. Remember: our intuition may or may not be in agreement with God's will.
For the majority of believers, seeking out signs of providentially inspired events serves only to convolute our decision-making processes. Why? Because when we spend our time looking for "signs" we are not focused on our relationship with God, but rather, on the actions and events occurring around us. This can be particularly dangerous because in so doing, we place ourselves in a position where we can be easily fooled. Knowing that the enemy can "masquerade as an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14) should serve to make us all the more wary of relying on signs or our own intuition. God can and does intervene in the lives of His believers. But when He does intervene in our lives, He may or may not allow us to see His hand at work. We need to constantly remind ourselves of the truth that God's ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:9). There is no reason to expect that God will always intervene in a way that we will understand or even recognize.
This brings us to an important question that has been left unasked until this point: what is the purpose of divine intervention? The Bible is full of examples of God intervening in the circumstances of individuals through various signs and wonders. Today, many believers feel "close" to God by virtue of the many times He has clearly intervened in their own lives. It is troubling to note, however, that in many cases such divine intervention was required not because of great faithfulness, but rather, to counter a lack of faith! We have already discussed Moses, but consider the children of Israel throughout their 40 years in the wilderness (Exodus 5-24)--a people whom God Himself referred to as "corrupt" and "stiff-necked" (Exodus 32:7-10). Why did God guide them by a pillar of cloud and fire (Exodus 13:21) every step of the way? Why did He perform so many signs and wonders for these people? The answer, it would seem, is clear--because He had to. Divine intervention was required in order to accomplish a divine purpose in the face of human unfaithfulness. There are many other examples of this such as the servant of Elisha (2 Kings 6:14-17), Zechariah (Luke 1:10-20), and Thomas (John 20:24-27). But if your life is anything like mine, I'm sure you can point to examples from your own experience that are just as convicting.
We may often find ourselves longing to see God at work with our own eyes. But the Bible reminds us that without faith it is impossible to please God. It would seem that the circumstances of our daily lives often present us with a choice between "faith" and "sight." Oh that we might say, as with Paul:
"We live by faith, not by sight." (2 Corinthians 5:7)
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Copyright © 1998 Tim A. Krell. All rights reserved. Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV), Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.