Theodoret of Cyrus: Divine Providence

Then he prayed, “Lord, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.” Genesis 24:12-14

“The slave set out from his master’s house and got to Charan late that day after covering many miles. He mounted camels to make the going easier and then, bidding a long farewell to the gifts he was offered and to all the trappings of wealth, he raised his hands to heaven and begged God to make a match for the son of his master and to give him a daughter-in-law suited to his master in character.

Who but would admire the man for his piety? Or rather who could find adequate praise for his every single word? His prayer, you can see, is graced with faith, wisdom, and piety. Is it not supreme piety and wisdom to turn one’s back on everybody and depend on the providence of God for the success of one’s journey? Does it not exceed the limits of faith for him to rely on the justice of his master, to call the God of all things his God, hoping thereby to receive the answer to His prayer and to have his petition granted.”

Theodoret of Cyrus in On Divine Providence, Discourse 8, in Ancient Christian Writers: The Works of the Fathers in Translation, ed. Walter J. Burghardt and Thomas Comerford Lawler (Mahwah: Paulist, 1988) 103.

Abraham’s slave demonstrated confidence in divine providence for success. This should cause each of us to pause and ask ourselves this question: What power do I trust in for success in my challenging endeavors? Do I depend on the trappings of wealth or leave them behind and depend on God?

Only God knows where we place our trust. Where do you place your trust?

My prayer is that He will find each of us abandoning the trappings of wealth and trusting Him to help us with what ever challenges we face and whatever needs we have. Let us trust Him as slaves of Christ like this slave of Abraham, because He is a faithful and generous God.

“When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’ Luke 10:8-11

“As a child I lived in an area of southern Missouri where electricity was available only in the form of lightning. We had more of that then we could use. But in my senior year of high school the REA (Rural Electrification Administration) extended its lines into the area where we lived, and electrical power became available to households and farms.

When those lines came by our farm, a very different way of living presented itself. Our relationships to fundamental aspects of life—daylight and dark, hot and cold, clean and dirty, work and leisure, preparing food and preserving it—could then be fastly changed for the better. But we still had to believe in the electricity and its arrangements, understand them, and take the practical steps involved in relying on it.

You may think the comparison rather crude, and in some respects it is. But it will help us to understand Jesus’ basic message about the kingdom of the heavens if we pause to reflect on those farmers who, in effect, heard the message: “Repent, for electricity is at hand.” Repent, or turn from their kerosene lamps and lanterns, their iceboxes and cellars, the scrub boards and rug beaters, their woman-powered sewing machines and their radios with dry-cell batteries.

The power that could make their lives far better was right there nar them where, by making relatively simple arrangements, they could utilize it. Strangely, few did not accept it. They did not enter the kingdom of electricity.” Some just did not want to change.”

Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God (New York: Harper Collins, 1998) 30-31.

Even as electricity provides “a very different way of living” for those who use it, when we live in light of the kingdom of God that has come near we tap into power, perspective, and generosity that is otherworldly.

Sadly, just like many farmers did not want to tap into the new power source, many people, though the kingdom is right in front of them, will not have anything to do with it. After all, it is “a very different way of living!”

What’s my point today? Those farmers did not want to change. The same holds true with many people. The lesson from today’s Scripture is to serve the receptive and shake the dust off related to the unreceptive.

Many will not be receptive to relying on God as their source of power, perspective, and generosity. As you enjoy the divine hours, “pause to reflect on those farmers” and ask yourself if you are one of them.

Even as life with electricity may well be 100x better than life without it, reliance upon God for provision and generosity is, in the words of Jesus, 100x better (Mark 10:29-30). Are you plugged in?

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20

“When rebuilding a house, there is always a certain amount of demolition and removal that needs to take place. Structures that no longer give life or serve the purpose of the building need to be removed. So it is in the Church. In the House of God, the things that need to be cleared out can literally be structures that no longer serve the mission or that prevent the mission from being fulfilled. They can also be attitudes, ideas, or theological perspectives that hinder our ability to fulfill the missionary mandate given to us by Jesus.”

James Mallon in Divine Renovation: Bringing Your Parish from Maintenance to Mission (New London: Twenty-Third, 2014) 59.

As I pause during the divine hours, my mind has turned to all the books on my shelf with the word “divine” in the title. It’s an odd rabbit trail, but then again, I am odd or at least not a mainstream bloke by any means, so let’s see where it leads.

Today, Mallon calls us to consider the junk we need to jettison in our lives and in the local church if we, collectively speaking, are going to give life and serve the missionary mandate. What’s the mandate? Go and make disciples and teach them to obey everything Jesus commanded.

Notice the word “everything” in that mandate. The most popular topic of Jesus was money. It may well be one of the only topics people do not want to discuss. Interestingly, if we get money right, we take hold of life 100x better than anything money can buy.

So why don’t people want to talk about money? Lots of reason. But the one that comes to mind related to Mallon’s post leads me to ask a question. How does your generosity create (or fail to create) structures that give life and that serve the missionary mandate?

The local church is changing. It can’t meet like it used to. But it is not a building anyway, the church is a body. If you are renovating your church activities at this time, make sure you challenge your peers to build structures that give life and serve the missionary mandate.

I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. Psalm 50:9-10

“Why make a priority of beauty in worship? Because it is what God deserves. He is of ultimate worth and deserves to receive from us as much honor as we can give. From the first, He directed His people to worship Him with gold, incense, embroidery, carved wood, vestments, “a golden bell and a pomegranate.”

Yes, He deserves it—but it’s just as true that we need to give it. God doesn’t need these costly things, for He already owns everything that is. It is we who need to offer such things, we need to keep giving Him beauty and honor, so we can understand what worship means. Beauty makes things happen within us that can’t be conveyed in words. Beauty sets the heart aright and opens it to God.”

Frederica Mathewes-Green in Welcome to the Orthodox Church: An Introduction to Eastern Christianity (Brewster: Paraclete, 2015) 56. Special thanks to my dear friend, Gregg Capin, for alerting me to this book.

God calls us to give to Him not because He needs it, but because when we pause, worship Him, and make our offerings, we celebrate His beauty and give Him honor.

And we actually discover in the process more of His greatness. We become overcome with gratitude. Worship transforms us, but only when we hold nothing back.

How will your generosity proclaim God’s beauty and majesty today? What can you do to honor Him with all He has so abundantly and graciously supplied to you?

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24

“There are clearly big themes in Scripture that we need to have informing and shaping our spirituality.

So, for instance, because the New Testament revolves around the person, cross, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, so must our spirituality. Because God cares passionately about the world He created, so we too must include stewardship of creation in our understanding of spirituality.

Because He loves and yearn over His world, so must we. Because He is just and looks for justice in human societies, we must work for justice in human societies, we must work for justice too, with special care for the widows and orphans and aliens (migrants) whose number explodes today all over the world.

In a world fixated on acquiring wealth and status we will live by different values of simplicity and humility, generosity and thankfulness. In a world that sees this life as all there is and an end in itself, we will live in the light of eternity and that infinite canvas against which earthly life is painted.

In a world often obsessed with avoiding suffering and seeking comfort, we will accept that suffering is an intrinsic part of following Christ as He calls us to take up not a sofa but a cross.”

Rose Dowsett in the conclusion to “Biblical and Theological Reflections on Christian Spirituality” in Spirituality in Mission: Embracing the Lifelong Journey (Globalization of Mission; New Kensington: William Carey Library, 2018).

Special thanks to Doug Christensen for alerting me to this book.

What if Christians everywhere coming out of COVID aimed at simplicity, humility, and generosity instead of self-preservation, comfort, and the avoidance of all suffering?

People would see us denying ourselves and taking up our crosses rather than our sofas. What’s your sofa? I don’t mean your chair at home where you read or rest, I mean what comfort do you try to preserve.

If we published the balance sheets of ministries personal bank accounts of believers to the world, would they reveal we are building wealth or distributing it?

Want some inspiration to offer Hope and Help in Times of Crisis?

Click to register for a free webinar tomorrow at 5am Denver Time. I will speak with fellow author, Roger Lam, and GTP colleagues, Ereny Monir and Trevor Lui.

When I am afraid, I put my trust in You. Psalm 56:3

“Hope requires a sense of purpose and dignity—a belief that we matter and that our life has value. But in a world of chaos, this hope cannot come from our circumstances. Our ability to control and maintain circumstances is just too feeble. We cannot contain the unpredictable forces of this world, and putting our hope in a career, a family, a nation, or even our own moral righteousness is flirting with disaster. When they fail, and they eventually will, so will our hope. Our sense of worth and dignity gets washed away in a deluge of despair.”

Skye Jethani in With from chapter “Life with Hope” (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2011) 135-156.

Americans love to try to “control and maintain our circumstances.” The preservation of comfort is a high value. With COVID we realize that we are not in control and our ability to maintain our circumstances is gone. There’s only one place to go to avoid despair. Find hope in God.

Where is your hope today? How about those around you? 

Many put their hope in a high-paying job. It can be gone in a moment. Others hope in a nation. As America moves toward election season many are promising things only God can deliver. The lesson is not to put our hope in our circumstances.

So our sense of worth comes from the fact that we are loved by God. You are loved by God. From there, hope is not in our moral goodness, because all of us are sinners. Our hope rests in God’s goodness, His generosity. And He wants us to be generous.

We get to dispense His good gifts, and in these hard times, let’s share hope richly.

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10

“This is the essence of a daily office. We stop our activity and pause to be with the Living God… We move into god’s presence and rest there; that alone is no small feat. There are times when I pause for my midday prayer and find that I spend the entire time available—be it five or twenty minutes—centering so I can let go of my tensions, distractions, and sensations and begin resting in the love of God.

Each office begins and ends with two minutes of silence. All religions practice silence. What makes silence unique for us is that we are silent before the Lord Himself. This will be difficult, especially at first. Our internal and external worlds are filled with noise and distractions. For this reason, silence is probably the most challenging and least experienced discipline among Christians today. Give yourself lots of grace here. Studies suggest that the average person can only bear about fifteen seconds of silence.”

Peter Scazzero in Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Day by Day: A 40-Day Journey with the Daily Office (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014) 12.

Give yourself some grace.

If you are embarking on the Daily Office, which is to pause seven times a day to pray following the example traced all the way back to David in the Old Testament, it’s not an easy discipline but it will enrich all who pursue it and position you for generous living, giving, serving, and loving.

To pause is to find rest, focus, and peace.

Today Jenni and I head back home to Colorado. It has been great to see my mom to observe her 80th birthday, to see my dad and to stay with my brother and his wife. Even as pausing to enjoy time away restores the body, pausing for the Daily Office restores the soul.

“I have the right to do anything,” you say–but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”–but I will not be mastered by anything. 1 Corinthians 6:12

“Holy Father, creator and sustaining wisdom of all that is, both heaven and on earth, take me from those thoughts, actions and objects that are hurtful. Give me instead those things that are profitable for me and all who seek rightly to praise you. I ask this grace in the company of all believers and through the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who is, with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.”

Phyllis Tickle in Prayers for Summertime: A Manual for Prayer (New York: Doubleday, 2000) 9.

As I shift from Brother Lawrence but remain focused on praying psalms on the divine hours, my attention turns to various works related to this area. Phyllis Tickle has done much writing on this topic.

In her book prayers for Summertime, she often repeats this prayer in the middle of the day. Why? I reckon, as we are out and about we can be drawn to things that are hurtful and we need things that are profitable.

Let us pray for our Holy and Generous Father to take away things that may be hurtful and give us what is profitable. I believe we often settle for what is good instead of what is most beneficial for us.

As our generosity reflects our source material, for it to bring infinite joy, we must be tapped into that which is best. As I am in Florida, this reminds me of the famous quote by C.S. Lewis from The Weight of Glory.

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

If you want to grow in generosity, be pleased only by that which is best. Pause at the divine hours and ask God to take away that which is hurtful, give you that which is profitable, and have wisdom to know the difference.

This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 9:23-24

“God knows best what is needful for us, and all that He does is for our good. If we knew how much He loves us, we should be always ready to receive equally and with indifference from His hand the sweet and the bitter; all would please that came from Him. The sorest afflictions never appear intolerable, but when we see them in the wrong light. When we see them in the hand of God, who dispenses them: when we know that it is our loving Father, who abases and distresses us: our sufferings will lose their bitterness, and become even matter of consolation.

Let all our employment be to know God: the more one knows Him, the more one desires to know Him. And as knowledge is commonly the measure of love, the deeper and more extensive our knowledge shall be, the greater will be our love: and if our love of God were great we should love Him equally in pains and pleasures.

Let us not amuse ourselves to seek or to love God for any sensible favors (how elevated soever) which He has or may do us. Such favors, though never so great, cannot bring us so near to God as faith does in one simple act. Let us seek Him often by faith: He is within us; seek Him not elsewhere. Are we not rude and deserve blame, if we leave Him alone, to busy ourselves about trifles, which do not please Him and perhaps offend Him? ‘Tis to be feared these trifles will one day cost us dear.

Let us begin to be devoted to Him in good earnest. Let us cast everything besides out of our hearts; He would possess them alone. Beg this favor of Him. If we do what we can on our parts, we shall soon see that change wrought in us which we aspire after. I cannot thank Him sufficiently for the relaxation He has vouchsafed you. I hope from His mercy the favor to see Him within a few days. Let us pray for one another.

Brother Lawrence (c. 1614-1691) in The Practice of the Presence of God: The Best Rule of Holy Life (Grand Rapids: CCEL) 31.

Today is the final post from Brother Lawrence. These are his famous last words before his death. He urged us to know God. The one who knows God has no fear. Those who know God receive everything equally and with indifference because we know the sovereign God behind the circumstances.

Rather than seek “sensible favors” from God, let us seek to know God. That’s what Brother Lawrence would urge us to do in these challenging COVID times. When we do, we find that generosity comes into view from a God who loves us, is with us, and always works things out for our good.

We also cease pursuing trifles and we shift to pursuing God. I hope you are pausing with me at the divine hours to pray the Psalms (6am, 9am, 12noon, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm and 12midnight or bedtime).

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Romans 8:18

“I am in pain to see you suffer so long; what gives me some ease, and sweetens the feeling I have of your griefs, is that they are proofs of God’s love towards you: see them in that view, and you will bear them more easily.

As your case is, ’tis my opinion that you should leave off human remedies, and resign yourself entirely to the providence of God; perhaps He stays only for that resignation and a perfect trust in Him to cure you.

Since notwithstanding all your cares, physic has hitherto proved unsuccessful, and your malady still increases, it will not be tempting God to abandon yourself in His hands, and expect all from Him.

I told you, in my last, that He sometimes permits bodily diseases to cure the distempers of the soul. Have courage then: make a virtue of necessity: ask of God, not deliverance from your pains, but strength to bear resolutely, for the love of Him, all that He should please, and as long as He shall please.”

Brother Lawrence (c. 1614-1691) in The Practice of the Presence of God: The Best Rule of Holy Life (Grand Rapids: CCEL) 31.

I am thankful for my brief visit to Florida (pictured above) to see family, but there’s a lot of COVID here.

Brother Lawrence notes that God “sometimes permits bodily diseases to cure the distempers of the soul.” In that sense, they are proof of God’s generous love for us. That’s counterintuitive. Few would consider disease as a cure for anything.

We are to entrust ourselves to the providence of God.

What if our prayer should shift from deliverance to something bigger, such as a heavy dose of strength and perseverance from God? He has a purpose for everything, including suffering. It’s for our good and His glory to be revealed through us.

God allows suffering to produce growth and good outcomes in our lives.

Our most generous testimony during a time of global lockdown and pandemic may well be to embrace the disease as a cure for the distempers of our souls. God sends plagues to call us to humble ourselves.

God, give us a big dose of strength to endure out of love for You. Amen.