God continually provides for our needs, but most of the time he does so anonymously: this is called providence. We can take providence for granted, thinking that it is just good luck. But we are Christians: we know better. In the Lord’s prayer, we ask God our Father to give us each day our daily bread. This is asking God for his providence, and he responds by giving it. Providence does not come with a label to say it is from God. It just comes: God remains anonymous. But we know it for what it is.
Providence is one of the ways we and God live in relationship with each other. Like every relationship, our relationship with God is rooted in who God is, and who we are. He is God, the source of all good things. We are human beings, in need of many things. God, being God, takes the lead in the relationship. Yet his character is gentle and humble in heart [Matthew 11:29], and he cares about our needs, even the ordinary day-to-day ones. Through providence, God chooses to care for us.
Yet providence is not a magic lamp or a wishing well: we don’t always get exactly what we want when we want it. There are various reasons for this, rooted in our relationship with God. Here are a few.
Perhaps we may not have asked [James 4:2b]? If we need something from God, we should ask, not because he doesn’t know what we need (he does know), but because he wants us to ask him, and he tells us to ask [Matthew 7:7-8]. Relationships benefit from communication, from conversation. If God wants us to ask him for things (and he does), then we should ask.
Perhaps we have asked for something that is a want, rather than a need? [James 4:3] It’s fine to ask God for wants, so long as these are good things, but we need to leave it up to him whether he grants them. If he does, our response should be, “Thanks be to God”. If he doesn’t, our response should be, “God’s will be done”. Jesus himself didn’t always get what he wanted [Luke 22:42]. We should not be so entitled as to think that we always should.
Perhaps we have made an error or miscalculation when assessing our needs? God knows our needs better than us. We may think we need something specific, because we can envision how it can help. But we might be a bit wrong in our envisioning. It might not help in the way we think it will. What if we are mistakenly asking for something that will harm instead of help [Luke 11:11-13]? God knows what we need better than we know it. Sometimes God gives us what he knows we really need, rather than what we think we need. That, too, is providence.
We need also to consider that that what we want may be a reflection not of our needs but of our fears. When we are afraid, it is easy to think that we need things to offset our fears. We might think we need extra protection, or extra resources, because we are afraid of what we can imagine could happen. When we take this to God in prayer, he often responds not by giving us the things we want to offset our fear, he instead addresses the fear itself. Fear can be crippling, or panic-inducing, and it can cause us to do all sorts of things that are not necessary and can be detrimental. When God sees this happening, he often responds by soothing the fear that is causing the problem. This, too, is providence.
We also need to remember that God’s providence will be of the form he chooses, not necessarily the form we might choose for ourselves. For example, God, instead of solving our problem for us, may give us the means to solve it for ourselves. We should be prepared and willing to put in the effort that may be needed.
Timing is also something to keep in mind. God does not always provide according to the schedule we would prefer. He may have a different schedule in mind. When we assess a need that is not being met, we should be persistent in our prayer until God meets that need. What may seem to us to be “late” may well be to God “exactly on time”. Know that even if God has not yet provided what we need, he wants us to be persistent in asking [Luke 11:5-10]. Providence happens according to God’s schedule.
One way God’s providence can provide for us is by giving us choices between good things. Our relationship with God is one where God wants us to have legitimate freedom to be ourselves, and that means making choices. But choices can have their challenges too, because choosing means saying Yes to one thing and No to another. Sometimes it will be obvious which choice to make, but sometimes not. When it isn’t obvious, it is OK to just pick one, without being overly anxious about picking the very best one. These are choices between good things. We will not be going wrong, whichever we pick. So when God’s providence provides choices between good things, choose freely, without anxiety, and thank God for the opportunity.
In general, thankfulness is the right response to God’s providence. He loves us and cares for us, and providence is one of the ways how. Understanding that providence is part of a relationship between God and ourselves helps us see the hand of God working in our lives, even though he is acting anonymously. Let us thank him from the bottom of our hearts. Let us thank God, who gives us each day our daily bread, for his providence for us.
Agapios Theophilus
Agapios Theophilus is the "nom de plume" of a catholic layman who has loved Jesus from when, as a young boy in the 1970s, he first learned about him. His First Communion, at the age of seven, was the happiest day of his life, and he celebrates its anniversary each year. He lives in a large city with his beloved wife and children. He has no formal qualifications whatsoever to write about Jesus: he writes only because he has been given the great gift of knowing and loving him, and he would like others to come to know and love him too. See Agapios' posts at https://sites.google.com/view/agapios-theophilus and follow Agapios on X (twitter) at http://www.x.com/a9apios
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