Every child of God may find and enter into God’s plan for
His life; and along with the God-planned life is divine providence. It is interwoven with every page of the Holy
Scriptures and every part of our Christian life. The God of the Bible is a Father and a
Friend, concerned in everything concerning us, touching with a hand of love and
power all the ordinary affairs of life, and directing and governing the whole
universe, from the minutest insect that floats in summer air to the mightiest
star that rolls in immensity.
In the story of Eliezer and Rebekah, we have the finest illustration
of God’s particular providence. The
servant goes forth to find a bride for Isaac, watching every indication of the
will of God as he treads his unknown way; and as the maiden meets him at the
well and every circumstance seems to point in the one direction, he recognizes
the hand of divine guidance and utters that sentence which is the very
embodiment of the whole philosophy of divine providence: “I being in the way,
the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brethren.”
Still more wonderful is the story of Joseph. It begins with a vision for his future, and
then with dramatic vividness everything is blotted out in the bitter trials and
disappointments that blight the fair promise of his youth; but the hand of love
leads unerringly through it all, and the day comes when every one of these
sorrows is overruled for his good and he can say to his cruel brethren, “Be ye
not grieved or sorry that ye sold me into Egypt. As for you, ye thought evil against me, but
God meant it unto good to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people
alive.”
Charles Cowman’s lifetime throughout was just one series of
providences, and often when asked why he had chosen to become a missionary he
would reply, “I did not choose. It was
God’s choice for me.” How can a man “choose”
a “calling”? If a man is called he does
not choose. It is the One who calls that
does the choosing. “Ye have not chosen
ME, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should
go and bear fruit, “ says our Lord. Men
act as though God threw down before them an assortment of plans from which they
might choose what pleases them, even as the shopkeeper tosses out a dozen
skeins of silk to a lady purchaser, from which she might select that which
strikes her fancy. But this is not
true. It is God’s right to choose. It is simply ours to ascertain and obey. For next in its eternal moment to the
salvation of a soul is the guidance of the life of a child of God. And God claims both as His supreme
prerogative.
--taken from Charles
E. Cowman, Missionary—Warrior, by Lettie Cowman
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