Week 10: The Father's Providence–Creation and Care

Q & A 27

Q. What do you understand
by the providence of God?

A. The almighty and ever present power of God (1)

by which God upholds, as with his hand,

heaven
and earth
and all creatures, (2)

and so rules them that

leaf and blade,
rain and drought,
fruitful and lean years,
food and drink,
health and sickness,
prosperity and poverty— (3)
all things, in fact,
come to us

not by chance (4)
but by his fatherly hand. (5)

1 Jer. 23:23-24; Acts 17:24-28
2 Heb. 1:3
3 Jer. 5:24; Acts 14:15-17/a>; John 9:3; Prov. 22:2
4 Prov. 16:33
5 Matt. 10:29

Q & A 28

Q. How does the knowledge
of God’s creation and providence help us?

A. We can be patient when things go against us, (1)

thankful when things go well, (2)
and for the future we can have
good confidence in our faithful God and Father
that nothing in creation will separate us from his love. (3)
For all creatures are so completely in God’s hand

that without his will
they can neither move nor be moved. (4)

1 Job 1:21-22; James 1:3
2 Deut. 8:10; 1 Thess. 5:18
3 Ps. 55:22; Rom. 5:3-5; 8:38-39
4 Job 1:12; 2:6; Prov. 21:1; Acts 17:24-28