The Providence of God

This morning it was raining as I stumbled into consciousness. I just lay there awhile, listening to the rain (an all too infrequent sound these days), in that kind of bland state one enters when the decision to remain awake or asleep is available.

"Christmas Present" came the thought.

Okay. File away under "Random thoughts that occur to me at 4 AM" and continue on.

Later, when I got up, I went to look at my Christmas present from The Ravishing Mrs. TB. It is below:
















The words you can't see in the picture are "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." It is Hebrews 11:1. The translation I prefer is "Now faith is the evidence of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen."

The word hope, a derivative of Elpizo, is to "hope, to hope for, to hope in, to expect." The word hupostatsis is "substantial nature, essence, actual being, realization. Likewise, the second half of the phrase is "pragmaton" ("thing", pragamatic anyone?) , and elegkhos ("verification or conviction"), and ou blepomenon ("not seen"). So the phrase, which runs only 9 words in the Greek instead of 16 in the English, most correctly says "Now faith (pistis) is the substantial evidence/essence/realization of things hoped for, things of which we are convicted of but are not seen."


So great. I've got time to translate Greek as well as search for a job. So what?


The so what is that suddenly a single thread of God's sovereignty became visible to me this morning. I got this back in December, long before I had lost my job, thought it was a great gift, but then filed it along with my other gifts waiting to be hung up/dealt with. Now, in the midst of a circumstance where I need my faith encouraged, this gift takes on a whole new meaning.


Never doubt the sovereignty of God. Never.

And remember that faith is not a thin reedy feeling, at least not to the Christian. It is a conviction, the substantial evidence of things we can't see yet - but will someday.