As you know or may not know I am reading through Calvin's Institutes of The Christian Religion fifteen minutes per day though I have missed a few days, It seems to me that some of his arguments and reasoning are foreign to our day and age, at least I have a difficult time processing it and applying it to my thinking. I appreciate what he says about God's providence in the following quote but be forewarned that it may be difficult for some of you who are going through various trials, tribulations and difficulties in your life.
Certainty about God's providence puts joyous trust toward God in our hearts:
"Yet, when that light of divine providence has once shone upon a godly man, he is then relieved and set free not only from the extreme anxiety and fear that were pressing him before, but from every care. For as he justly dreads fortune, so he fearlessly dares commit himself to God. His solace, I say, is to know that his heavenly Father so holds all things in His power, so rules by His authority and will, so governs by His wisdom, that nothing can befall except He determine it. Moreover it comforts him to know that he has been received into God's safekeeping and entrusted to the care of His angels, and that neither water, nor fire, nor iron can harm him, except in so far as it pleases God as governor to give them occasion. Thus indeed the Psalm sings: "For God will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. Under His wings will God protect you, and in His pinions you will have assurance; God's truth will be your shield. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the flying arrow by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at midday" (Psalm 91:3-6). From this, also, arises in the saints the assurance that they may glory. "The Lord is my helper." (Psalm 118:6) "The Lord is my light and my salvation! Whom shall i fear? The Lord is the strength of my life! Of what shall I be afraid." (Psalm 27:1-2) [My insert]
Whence, I pray you, do they have this never-failing assurance but from knowing that, when the world appears to be aimlessly tumbled about, the Lord is everywhere at work, and from trusting that His work will be for their welfare?" [Book 1 Chapter 17, article 11]
Let me conclude with that beautiful phrase from Heidelberg Catechism #1: "Jesus watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven, in fact all things must work together for my salvation."
May God's peace which is beyond human understanding be yours by grace through Jesus Christ.
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