Submitting to Sad Providences (John Flavel)
“How may a Christian work his heart into resignation to the will of God when sad providences approach him and forebode great troubles and afflictions coming on towards him?…
Our Inability to Submit
“It must be premised that the question does not suppose the heart or will of a Christian to be at his own command and disposal in this matter. We cannot resign it, and subject it to the will of God whenever we desire so to do. The duty indeed is ours, but the power by which alone we perform it is God’s; we act as we are acted upon by the Spirit.
“It is with our hearts as with meteors hanging in the air by the influence of the sun; while that continues they abide above, but when it fails they fall to the earth. We can do this and all things else, however difficult, through Christ that strengthens us (Phil. 4:13). But without him we can do nothing (John 15:5). He does not say, ‘Without me ye can do but little,’ or ‘without me ye can do nothing but with great difficulty,’ or ‘without me ye can do nothing perfectly,’ but, ‘without me ye can do nothing’ at all. And every Christian has a witness in his own breast to attest this truth. For there are cases frequently occurring in the methods of Providence in which, notwithstanding all their prayers and desires, all their reasonings and strivings, they cannot quieten their hearts fully in the disposal and will of God; but on the contrary they find all their endeavours in this matter to be but as the rolling of a returning stone against the hill. Till God say to the heart, ‘Be still,’ and to the will, ‘Give up,’ nothing can be done…
“Ah, how unwilling we are to surrender to the Lord the loan which he lent us, to be disquieted by troubles when at ease in our enjoyments! How unwelcome are the messengers of affliction to the best men! We are ready to say to them as the widow to Elijah: ‘What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God; art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?’ (1 Kings 17:18). And this arises partly from the remains of corruption in the best souls, for though every sanctified person is come by his own consent into the kingdom and under the government and sceptre of Christ, and every thought of his heart by right must be subjected to him (2 Cor. 10:5), yet in fact the conquest and power of grace is but incomplete and in part, and natural corruption, like Jeroboam with his vain men, rises up against it, and causes many mutinies in the soul, whilst grace, like young Abijah, is weak-handed and cannot resist them; and partly from the advantage Satan makes upon the season to irritate and assist our corruptions. He knows that what is already in motion is the more easily moved. In this confusion and hurry of thoughts he undiscernedly slips in his temptations, sometimes aggravating the evils which we fear with all the sinking and overwhelming circumstances imaginable, sometimes divining and forecasting such events and evils as, haply, never fall out, sometimes repining at the disposals of God as more severe to us than others, and sometimes reflecting with very unbelieving and unworthy thoughts upon the promises of God, and his faithfulness in them, by all which the affliction is made to sink deep into the soul before it actually comes. The thoughts are so disordered that duty cannot be duly performed. And the soul is really weakened and disabled to bear its trial when it comes indeed; just as if a man should be kept waking and restless all the night with the thoughts of his hard journey which he must travel tomorrow, and so when tomorrow is come he faints midway on his journey for want of rest.
Our Duty of Submission
“It is here supposed to be the Christian’s great duty, under the apprehensions of approaching troubles, to resign his will to God’s and quietly commit the events and their outcome to him, whatever they may prove. Thus did David in the like case and circumstances: ‘And the king said unto Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into the city; if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back again, and show me both it and his habitation: but if he thus say, I have no delight in thee: behold here am I, let him do to me as seemeth good unto him’ (2 Sam. 15:25, 26). O lovely and truly Christian attitude! As much as to say, ‘Go Zadok, return with the ark to its place; though I have not the symbol, yet I hope I shall have the real presence of God with me in this sad journey. How he will dispose the events of this sad and doubtful providence I know not. Either I shall return again to Jerusalem, or I shall not. If I do, then I shall see it again, and enjoy the Lord in his ordinances there. If I do not, then I shall go to that place where there is no need or use of those things. And either way it will be well for me. I am content to refer all to the divine pleasure, and commit the issue, be it whatever it will, to the Lord.’
“And till our hearts come to the like resolve, we can have no peace within. ‘Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established’ (Prov. 16:3). By works he means not only every enterprise and business we undertake, but every puzzling, intricate and doubtful event we fear. These being once committed by an act of faith, and our wills resigned to his, besides the comfort we shall have in the issue, we shall have the present advantage of a well-composed and peaceful spirit.
“But this resignation is the difficulty. There is no doubt of peace, could we once bring our hearts to that. And therefore I shall here give such helps and directions as much, through God’s blessing and in the faithful use of them, assist and facilitate this great and difficult work.
Helps to Submission
Consider the Wisdom of God
“Labour to work into your hearts a deep and fixed sense of the infinite wisdom of God and your own folly and ignorance. This will make resignation easy to you. Whatsoever the Lord does is by counsel (Eph. 1:11), his understanding is infinite (Psa. 147:5), his thoughts are very deep (Psa. 92:5), but as for man, yea, the wisest among men, how little does his understanding penetrate the works and designs of Providence! And how often we are forced to retract our rash opinions and confess our mistakes, and to acknowledge that if Providence had not seen with better eyes than ours, and looked farther than we did, we had precipitated ourselves into a thousand mischiefs, which by its wisdom and care we have escaped. It is well for us that the ‘seven eyes of Providence’ are ever awake and looking out for our good. Now if one creature can and ought to be guided and governed by another that is more wise and skilful than himself, as the client by his learned counsel, the patient by his skillful physician, much more should every one give up his weak reason and shallow understanding to the infinite and omniscient God.
“It is nothing but our pride and arrogance over-valuing our own understandings that makes resignation so hard. Carnal reason seems to itself a wise disputant about the concerns of the flesh, but how often has Providence baffled it! The more humility, the more resignation…
Consider the Uselessness of Doubt
“Deeply consider the sinfulness and vanity of torturing your own thoughts about the issues of doubtful providences.
“There is much sin in so doing, for all our anxious and agitated emotions, what are they other than the immediate outcome and fruits of pride and unbelief? There is not a greater display of pride in the world than in the contests of our wills with the will of God. It is a presumptuous invading of God’s prerogative to dictate to his providence and prescribe to his wisdom.
“There is a great vanity in it. All the thoughtfulness in the world will not make one hair white or black. All our discontents will not prevail with God to call back, or as the word may be rendered, make void his word (Isa. 31:2). He is in one mind (Job 23:13), the thoughts of his mind are from everlasting (Psa. 33:11).
Review Scriptural Examples of Submission
“Set before you those choice Scripture patterns of submission to the Lord’s will in as deep, yea, much deeper points of self-denial than this before you, and shame yourselves out of this quarreling attitude with Providence.
“You know what a close trial that providence was to Abraham, that called him from his native country and father’s house to go he knew not where; and yet it is said that he came to God’s foot, as readily obeying his call as a servant when his master knocks for him with his foot. (Sa. 41:2)
“Paul’s voyage to Jerusalem had a dismal aspect upon himself. He could expect nothing but bonds and prisons, as he tells us (Acts 20:23), and a great trial it was to the saints, who could not tell how to give up such a minister; yet he resigns up his will to God’s (Acts 20:22), and so do they: ‘The will of the Lord be done’ (Acts 21:14).
“But far beyond these, and all other patterns, what an example has our dear Lord Jesus set before us in the deepest point of self-denial that ever was in the world! When the Father gave the cup of sufferings into his hands in the garden, a cup of wrath, the wrath of the great and terrible God, and that without mixture, the very taste of which put nature into an agony and astonishment, a sore amazement, a bloody sweat, and forced from him that vehement and sad cry: ‘Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me’; yet still with submission, ‘nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt’ (Mark 14:36). O blessed pattern of obedience and resignation to the pleasure of God! What is your case in comparison to this?
Consider the Benefits of Submission
“Study the singular benefits and advantages of a will resigned up and melted into the will of God.
“Such a spirit has a continual Sabbath within itself. The thoughts are established (Prov. 16:3), and truly, till a man come to this, he does but too much resemble the devil, who is a restless spirit seeking rest but finding none. It was an excellent expression of Luther to one that was much perplexed in his spirit about the doubtful events of some affairs of his that were then depending: ‘The Lord shall do all for thee, and thou shalt do nothing but be the Sabbath of Christ.’ It is by this means that the Lord ‘giveth his beloved sleep’ (Psa. 127:2); he does not mean the sleep of the body, but of the spirit. As one has said on this verse: ‘Though believers live in the midst of many troubles here, yet with quiet and composed minds they keep themselves in the silence of faith, as though they were asleep.’
“Besides, it fits a man’s spirit for communion with God in all his afflictions, and this alleviates and sweetens them beyond anything in the world.
“And surely a man is never nearer the mercy he desires, or the deliverance he expects, as one truly observes, than when his soul is brought into a submissive attitude. David was never nearer the kingdom than when he became as a weaned child.
Consider how Evil is Unsubmission
“Think how repugnant an unsubmissive attitude is both to your prayers and professions.
“You pray that the will of God may be done on earth as it is in heaven, and yet when it seems contrary to your will or interest, you struggle or fret about it. You profess to have committed your souls to his keeping, and to leave your eternal concerns in his hands, and yet cannot commit things infinitely less valuable unto him. How contradictory are these things!
“You profess as Christians to be led by the Spirit, but this practice shows you follow the perverse counsels of your own spirits. O then, regret no more, dispute no more, but lie down meekly at your Father’s feet, and say in all cases and at all times, ‘The will of the Lord be done.’..
“How Providence will dispose of my life, liberty, and labours for time to come, I know not; but I cheerfully commit all to him who has hitherto performed all things for me (Psa. 57:2).
John Flavel (1627-1691) was an English Presbyterian minister. Ejected from his church due to the Act of Uniformity (1662), he continued to preach in private. He is known for his extensive writings, including ‘The Mystery of Providence’ from which this excerpt is drawn.
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