How can I learn to trust that God is in control?

Not only are the will and the passions to be bridled and silenced, but anxieties also. We are in relationship with God; in all things He is our refuge; and events do not disturb Him. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows everything, He knows it beforehand; events shake neither His throne, nor His heart; they always accomplish His purposes. But to us He is love; we are through grace the objects of His tender care. He listens to us and bows down His ear to hear us. In all things therefore, instead of disquieting ourselves and weighing everything in our own hearts, we ought to present our requests to God with prayer, with supplication, with a heart that makes itself known (for we are human beings) but with the knowledge of the heart of God (for He loves us perfectly); so that, even while making our petition to Him, we can already give thanks, because we are sure of the answer of His grace, be it what it may; and it is our requests that we are to present to Him. Nor is it a cold commandment to find out His will and then come: we are to go with our requests. Hence it does not say, you will have what you ask; but God's peace will keep your hearts. This is trust; and His peace, the peace of God Himself, shall keep our hearts. It does not say that our hearts shall keep the peace of God; but, having cast our burden on Him whose peace nothing can disturb, His peace keeps our hearts. Our trouble is before Him, and the constant peace of the God of love, who takes charge of everything and knows all beforehand, quiets our disburdened hearts, and imparts to us the peace which is in Himself and which is above all understanding (or at least keeps our hearts by it), even as He Himself is above all the circumstances that can disquiet us, and above the poor human heart that is troubled by them. Oh, what grace! that even our anxieties are a means of our being filled with this marvellous peace, if we know how to bring them to God, and true He is. May we learn indeed how to maintain this intercourse with God and its reality, in order that we may converse with Him and understand His ways with believers!

And this walk in Christ and with Christ must be characterized by dependence on God. "Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is at hand." Walking thus means to walk in meekness, not reaching out after the things which are but for a moment, content with such things as we have, never asserting one's right. Moderation means to put a check upon our own will. How easy all this becomes if we just have it as a present reality that the Lord is nigh and that when He comes all will be made right. A little while longer and all will be changed. And while we walk here in His fellowship, His command to us is, "Be anxious for nothing." All rests in His loving hands. His people have tribulation down here. He told us so. "In the world ye shall have tribulation; be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). And prayer is our refuge. Most blessed words! How the child of God loves, appreciates and makes use of them! "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." We can cast all our cares upon Him, for we know He careth for us. He is our burden bearer. We may look upon all our burdens as being permitted by Him so that we may give them back to Him and find out His love and power.

How true it is that God orders our lives, if we will only trust Him step by step.

Further, God is in control of everything and he will conduct and direct everything according to His perfect will. In Isaiah 46:10 He says: ‘declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure’. In addition to His foreknowledge, God’s providence means He directly influences things according to His purpose so that in the end His plans will always be realised.[1]

THE sovereignty of God is what alone gives rest to the Christian heart in view of a world full of evil, which is gone astray from Him. To know that after all, spite of the rebellion of the creature, things are as absolutely in His hand as ever they were - that still with the apostle we can adore "one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all," - this brings, and alone brings, full relief. Still He rules over all, and where evil cannot be turned to good, limits and forbids it: He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath (what would go beyond this) He restrains.

Daniel manifested the state of soul he was in, at the moment of hearing the difficulty which he was not THEN prepared to solve; but he knew God was acquainted with all that man was a stranger to, and troubled about, and his faith at once confided in Him. What holy and peaceful dignity, at a moment of universal trouble, with no human way out of it, to be able to look away from every thing and person to the living God, with the assurance that He will interpose to display Himself, and honour those who put their trust in Him. If faith is confident, it is never presumptuous; hence Daniel who owns and believes God, betakes himself to that which is exactly opposite to the spirit of independence, set up by the will of man at the first. Prayer is the happy expression of dependence, and is the healthy mark of a soul right with God, as well as walking with Him, and counting on Him. Daniel in his experience was no stranger to prayer, together with its positive value in the hour of need; so he invited others of like experience, and sought from God the needed mercy. How unspeakably blessed to be able to go to God and count upon Him; truly may it be written, "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him." Special circumstances of trial and pressure in which man had been totally helpless proved a ready occasion for faith to exercise its confidence in, and dependence upon, the living and known God; therefore special mercies were sought from the God of heaven, and in due time the suited and ready answer came.

If this is the case, and only those who do not know the Lord will deny it, then all that we have to do is to bring our need to His notice. At the wedding in Cana and at the sorrowing home in Bethany this was done, and it was not done in vain. So that we would say to all who are affected by the present state of things, make your need known to Him — present your case before the Father, whom He was here revealing, and if in His love and wisdom He sees that it be for the blessing of you and yours, and for His glory, He will certainly order things so that you may still abide in the place where you are. If, on the other hand, He permits your nest to be disturbed, and you to be flung into new conditions of life, you may accept this as His will for you, quietly and confidently. He will not permit you to be overburdened, not a feather's weight more than you are able to bear joyfully will be put upon you, and though you may be reduced as to material comforts you will be greatly enlarged in the knowledge of Himself — who is the Lord Almighty, and who has said: "I will be a Father to you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters" (2 Cor. 6:18). Thus will you prove for yourself that it is possible to be without anxiety.

Should not we as saints of God more definitely commit our ways to Him? The husband comes home. He has lost his employment. The situation is dark. Husband and wife are struck dumb. Happy if they put their affairs in God’s hands. It may be a few years go by. We call on the couple. They live in a different part of the country. They say, “What we thought was a crushing blow that tempted us to think that God was harsh, has turned out to our material, and spiritual blessing. We can see God’s hand in it all now in a wonderful way.”

With the exception of certain solemn judgments on the wicked, and the establishment for a time of His throne in Israel, God's government of the world has, since the entrance of sin, been of a secret, providential character. All things are, indeed, ordered or controlled by divine power; human wickedness is thus checked, and the violence of man's passions restrained; all things are caused to work together for good to God's people; and generally speaking, iniquity becomes, in the long run, its own punishment: but all this is by a mysterious combination and superintendence of events of which natural men know nothing. Faith recognizes it, discerning the hand of God in many things, and confessing it in all; but the world at large neither discern nor own anything but the actual course of events, and the human agencies to which these are attributed. Such is Providence.

He who knows the end from the beginning, and sees what is coming, alone can make provision. Nothing takes Him by surprise. The cloud that has darkened the heavens and desolated the earth He saw before it was the size of a man's hand. It may have come upon the pilgrim suddenly, like a thunderclap, so that, for the moment, he knew not where to look, what to say, or what to do. He was overwhelmed — his soul was sinking in deep waters. But there was one eye that saw what was coming and prepared for it. And, oh, what a preparation is His! With wonder and amazement the soul can only worship in the presence of a love that has thought of everything, and provided for everything, even to the least thing. Adorable Lord, what grace is Thine! what care for Thy people! But why wonder? No event, no circumstance in the event, could be too minute for Him who counts the hairs of our head, and suffers not a sparrow to fall to the ground without His providence.