© 1994-2018, Scott Sperling
God is in Control
"For what else can be said where heat and cold bring equal danger? Then, in what
direction soever you turn, all surrounding objects not only may do harm, but
almost openly threaten and seem to present immediate death. Go on board a ship,
you are but a plank's breadth from death. Mount a horse, the stumbling of a foot
endangers your life. Walk along the streets, every tile upon the roofs is a source of
danger. If a sharp instrument is in your own hand, or that of a friend, the possible
harm is manifest. All the savage beasts you see are so many beings armed for your
destruction. Even within a high-walled garden, where everything ministers to
delight, a serpent will sometimes lurk. Your house, constantly exposed to fire,
threatens you with poverty by day, with destruction by night. Your fields, subject to
hail, mildew, drought, and other injuries, denounce barrenness, and thereby
famine. I say nothing of poison, treachery, robbery, some of which beset us at home,
others follow us abroud. Amid these perils, must not man be very miserable, as one
who, more dead than alive, with difficulty draws an anxious and feeble breath, just
as if a drawn sword were constatly suspended over his neck?... But when once the
light of Divine Providence has illumined the believer's soul, he is relieved and set
free, not only from the extreme fear and anxiety which formerly oppressed him, but
from all care. For as he justly shudders at the idea of chance, so he can confidently
commit himself to God. This, I say, is his comfort, that his heavenly Father so
embraces all things under his power--so governs them at will by His nod--so
regulates them by His wisdom, that nothing takes place save according to His
appointment; that received into His favour, and entrusted to the care of His angels,
neither fire, not water, nor sword, can do him harm, except in so far as God their
master is pleased to permit."
-- John Calvin (1509-1564)