How Does God Work Today?
This is a question that many inquire about all the time.

Introduction
When our fragile human minds try to figure out what God is doing, we often fail in understanding Him and His work among men.
This question has plagued mankind ever since man as realized there is a God.
We hear questions like:
Does God cause calamity and disasters?
Does God choose which planes land safely or crash?
Why does God allow bad to happen to good people?
Does God control everything in our lives?
Does God---------the list is endless.
Even Christians question some of these things.
So we must study the bible to see what it tells us about how God works among men today.
Anytime we consult the Bible, we must do so in a particular way.
We should always have the attitude of prayer so that we may learn of God and His ways.
We should pray our minds are open and receptive to His word.
We must pray with a willingness to change our ways if the Bible commands us to.
The scriptures teach us that God punishes the wicked and give grace to the faithful.
In times past, the punishment was exacted in this life, whereas in our age, the punishment is reserved for judgment.
The blessings upon His children are brought upon the faithful.
We just have to open or minds to see what those blessings are (even if we are being persecuted).
We must also realized that if the Bible does not reveal something, it is not our place to guess or suppose how God wants us to learn it (Deuteronomy 29:29).
Really, we should realize that God has given us everything we need to know, and if it is not revealed in the Bible it is either unknowable, or something God does not want us to know (2 Peter 1:3).
If we try to know it, we can only do so from human understanding and whatever we determine will be beneath what God has already taught (Isaiah 55:8-9).
We also have to realize that in times past, God had a more interactive relationship with people than He does today.
That is because they were under a different dispensation, and as a result under a different justice system.
Man’s problem occurs when he tries to mix the covenants.
We also know that some things in the Bible are outrageous or unbelievable for our age, but were possible in past ages.
We must learn to accept by faith that:
Jonah was swallowed by a big fish and survived three days.
We must believe that God parted the waters of the Red sea and the Jordan river.
We must believe that God punished people in various ways, even striking them dead immediately.
Everything we read in the Bible came about because God was in control.
Now, concerning modern day events, we would question if some preacher came to us and said that he just spent three days in the belly of a fish.
I suppose that if miracles still existed today, it could be believed.
In the first century of our faith, men were inspired by God and were given gifts to prove their words were from God (Hebrews 2:1-4).
Once the word of God had been sent to the world, and written down for our instruction, the miraculous gifts would end (1 Corinthians 13:8-10).
So God does not do miracles today and we may ask why not?
Seems like every time something good occurs we want to say a miracle has happened.
People of the world believe this happens all the time.
But there is a difference in divine miracles and divine providence.
While miracles have ceased, we still believe in God’s providence.
Otherwise we would cease to pray.
Providence is defined as: the care, guardianship and control exercised by a deity.
Just look at the word and you see “provide”.
What does God provide?
God provides a way of salvation.
He has given us the message of the gospel with the instructions to be obedient to the teachings of Christ and His apostles.
In so doing, he gives us a lifestyle to be lived that benefits all mankind.
When God used miracles to do His will, He used the natural in supernatural ways.
Our problem is in trying to figure out how God does things by using the natural in supernatural ways.
If we step out into the path of a car on the roadway, God is not going to make the car pass through us and us be unharmed.
God will not stop the car like it ran into a superhero.
In all likelihood, we are going to be injured or killed.
We could say:
Maybe the driver was slowing down and able to put his foot on the brake in time.
Maybe the driver had a flat and had to stop up the road to change the tire.
Maybe the driver stopped at a convenience store when he normally would have been travelling in this spot at the moment you stepped into the street.
All these maybe’s are nothing more than speculation, but how does it relate to the providence of God?
So why do we believe in Divine Providence?
Because the bible informs us that God does it.
We may not see it, but we still believe it.
We should believe that Divine providence has brought us the Bible in its current form.
With all the effort to destroy the Bible and corrupt what it teaches, God had to have a hand in seeing it got down to us as He wrote it.
We have to believe that God would not have allowed errors in the writing so that we could never know the truth as He revealed it.
Constantly through apologetics we learn the truth of God’s word is verified and still accurate today.
By proving the Bible is the word of God, our next step is to study it to see what it says about God’s protection and care for us.
Romans 8:28 will be our beginning place.
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose”.
This passage teaches us that not only is God watching out for us, but there is a qualifier involved as well.
Our love (demonstrated by our obedience) and our response to His call (which happens by our obedience to the gospel).
Another verse to consider is James 5:16:
“Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much”.
If God does not intervene by the request we make, our prayers are useless.
Christians are commanded to pray all the time (1 Thessalonians 5:17) which should indicate to us that God wants to hear our prayers so that He can respond to our prayers.
This fits the definition of Divine providence.
History, both ancient and modern, is filled with great and often sudden calamities.
Earthquakes, raging fires, tornados, hurricanes, and tidal waves have killed thousands.
When these catastrophes happen, is it God who caused them?
If we consider that God is the one who created the natural laws that govern such events, then yes, God caused them.
If we mean that God by miraculous power created each event specifically to bring divine retribution upon men, then the answer is no.
It is within the scope of divine providence to believe that when great and sudden calamities occur, God uses them to accomplish His will.
Catastrophes may afford the Christian the opportunity to fulfill his responsibility to "do
good unto all men" (Galatians 6:10).
They bring men into the house of mourning and call to mind how fragile life is (Ecclesiastes 7:2; James 4:14).
We also read in Philippians 1:5 that God began a good work in each of us until we die or Christ returns.
Also in Philippians 2:13 reads: “For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure”.
On a personal level, we learn that Christians must take the bad with the good and never foolishly accuse God nor curse Him (Job 2:10).

Conclusion
God's presence should be felt daily in the lives of Christians.
We must never forget it is in Him that we live and
move and have our being (Acts 17:28).
We can also believe that God’s providence brought all of us here into this room together for a purpose.
In fact, everything that is good, we should give God the credit for allowing it to happen to us.

By Carey Scott from an article by James Young

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