There are times in life when we, as God’s children, try to follow God’s will and things happen that we do not understand, but later come to realize that God’s guiding hand was involved. A good example of this is found in Acts 16:6-7 on Paul’s 2nd missionary journey, when he and Silas tried to go into Asia and then Bithynia to preach the gospel, but were forbidden by the Holy Spirit. I’m sure they may have been baffled until, upon reaching Mysia, Paul received a vision of a man from Macedonia pleading with him to “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” With this they understood that their frustrations were God ordained, as it was His purpose at that time for them to go into Europe and open up the gospel there to the Gentiles. This is what is known as ‘divine providence’, defined as “God’s caring provision for His people as he guides them in their journey of faith through life, accomplishing His purposes in them.”
There are many evidences of this history. One of the best examples we find in American history has to do with the Pilgrims arrival at Plymouth Rock on the Mayflower in 1620. This group of Separatist Christians had initially left England to live in Leiden amongst the Dutch in an effort to escape religious persecution from the Church of England. But things were not working out there as their young people, they felt, were being unduly influenced by their secular society. So they left there and, after much time spent in prayer, decided to go to the only place left for them, the newly discovered lands of North America, believing that this was where God was leading them.
Most everyone knows the story of the Mayflower and the 66-day voyage with 102 passengers. They traveled from England in conditions probably none of our families could imagine today or would be willing to endure, just to find a place where they could worship God as they were led by the Scriptures and by their consciences.
Originally destined for Jamestown, the ship was blown off course a few hundred miles north. Upon landing there, they decided to proceed south, but fierce shoals and riptides around Cape Cod made their attempts very treacherous. The captain decided they would have to go back out to sea before they could safely proceed south, but the leaders of this little flock of Christians, led by William Bradford, began to wonder if their being blown off course had been directed by God, and that this was where He intended them to be. Moving back to land, they went ashore and found an abandoned cache of buried corn, and a couple of days later, twenty acres of cleared land with rich and fertile soil prepared for planting, but no one in sight.
Within a couple of days, they met an Indian who informed them that this land had always belonged to the Patuxets, a large, hostile Indian tribe that had murdered every white man that landed on their shores, but that just 4 years before their arrival, a mysterious plague had killed every man, woman and child. So complete was the devastation that no other tribe would dare come near it, believing some great supernatural spirit had destroyed them. It is believed that this was probably the only location in New England where they could have landed and been able to successfully plant their church and live in peace. On hearing this, they could only rejoice and thank God, as He had brought them here to this exact spot, where they would now be able to worship and serve Him in Spirit and in truth, no longer threatened with religious persecution. Just as God promised them, so we need to understand also; “All things ‘still’ will work together for good to them that love God, to those that are called according to His purpose.”
For God’s glory and His alone,
Pastor Terry.
