Is it correct to refer to something as a "God thing"?

But were all these remarkable happenings just a series of coincidences? By no means: they were the movings of the hand of God, though He Himself remained hidden. God was behind the scenes of man's busy little world; but then, as has very well been observed, He moves all the scenes that He is behind. Moreover He moves them in favour of His people, if not always for their temporal preservation and advancement always for their spiritual good and the advancement of His own purposes.

Nothing so much helps the Christian to endure the trials of his path as the habit of seeing God in everything. There is no circumstance, be it ever so trivial or ever so commonplace, which may not be regarded as a messenger from God, if only the ear be circumcised to hear, and the mind spiritual to understand the message. If we lose sight of this valuable truth, life, in many instances at least, will be but a dull monotony, presenting nothing beyond the most ordinary circumstances. On the other hand, if we could but remember, as we start each day on our course, that the hand of our Father can be traced in every scene — if we could see in the smallest, as well as in the most weighty circumstances, traces of the divine presence, how full of deep interest would each day's history be found!

The believer, therefore, must not look upon anything as ordinary, for God is in everything. True, he may have to pass through the same circumstances — to meet the same trials — to encounter the same reverses as other men; but he must not meet them in the same way, nor interpret them on the same principle; nor do they convey the same report to his ear. He should hear the voice of God, and heed His message, in the most trifling as well as in the most momentous occurrence of the day. The disobedience of a child, or the loss of an estate, the obliquity of a servant or the death of a friend, should all be regarded as divine messengers to his soul.

So also, when we look around us in the world, God is in everything. The overturning of thrones, the crashing of empires, the famine, the pestilence, and every event that occurs among nations, exhibit traces of the hand of God, and utter a voice for the ear of man. The devil will seek to rob the Christian of the real sweetness of this thought; he will tempt him to think that, at least, the commonplace circumstances of every-day life exhibit nothing extraordinary, but only such as happen to other men. But we must not yield to him in this. We must start on our course every morning, with this truth vividly impressed on our mind — God is in everything. The sun that rolls along the heavens in splendid brilliancy, and the worm that crawls along the path, have both alike been prepared of God, and, moreover, could both alike cooperate in the development of His unsearchable designs.

The renewed mind enjoys one of its sweetest exercises, while tracing the divine footsteps in circumstances and events in which a thoughtless spirit sees only blind chance or rigid fate. The most trifling matter may, at times, turn out to be a most important link in a chain of events by which the Almighty God is helping forward the development of His grand designs. Look, for instance, at Esther 4:1, and what do you see? A heathen monarch, spending a restless night. No uncommon circumstance, we may suppose; and, yet, this very circumstance was a link in a great chain of providence at the end of which you find the marvellous deliverance of the oppressed seed of Israel.

Now, there are, perhaps, few things in which we so much fail as in apprehending the presence of God, and His dealing with our souls in every circumstance of daily life. We are constantly ensnared by looking at secondary causes; we do not realize God in everything. Hence Satan gets the victory over us. Were we more alive to the fact that there is not an event which happens to us, from morning to night, in which the voice of God may not be heard, the hand of God seen, with what a holy atmosphere would it surround us! Men and things would then be received as so many agents and instruments in our Father's hand; so many ingredients in our Father's cup.

The writer, and I am sure many of his readers, can witness to wonderful answers to prayer, when only by a remarkable combination of circumstances as to time and place, etc., could the answer be possible—a combination quite beyond the range of chance or happy coincidence, but an answer clearly planned by Divine intelligence and carried out by Divine power—in short, an answer given by God Himself.

Our God is the LIVING God. Nothing escapes His notice and He is "the Saviour [or, Preserver] of all men, specially of those that believe." The poor heathen enjoying a wonderful deliverance may attribute his escape to the potency of the charm given to him by the medicine man. The British motorist, a nominal Christian, just escaping a fearful crash may declare that he never comes to any harm so long as he has his black cat mascot on board — he has never known it to fail. They are both wrong though the latter is far more guilty. Both are victims of profane and old wives' fables. The truth is their deliverances came, whether directly or indirectly from the hand of God.

It is happy thus to trace the hand of the Lord using men — whether prophets, servants, or kings — and behind every circumstance and coincidence, making all things work together for good to them that love Him.

God is not only in control of the destiny of peoples and nations. Nor is His interest limited to the big issues in our lives. Rather, He holds everything is His mighty hand — even the small details of everyday life. Very often we do not take this into account and we ask questions — Why? How long? etc. However, our limited perception does not mean that His dealings with us are not real. They are! It was God who kept sleep away from king Ahasuerus. It was God who directed the king not to ask for some women to attend him and distract him (which was quite usual at court at that time) so that he asked to see ‘the book of the records’ (6:1). And it was God who directed his attention to the record this contained concerning the way Mordecai had saved his life in the past. Was all that just by chance? Not at all! God had all these small and inconspicuous details in His mighty hands. In the end, all these things turned out to fulfil His plans.

God’s providential dealings are comprehensive and all-embracing

The providence of God is something which we may not often consider or of which we may not always be conscious. Yet it is a reality. Whether we consider the course of world history or our own lives personally and in connection with other people, divine providence is always at work.