SUNDAY DEVOTION: Providence

In 1755, a 23-year-old George Washington served as aide to British general Edward Braddock on an expedition during the French and Indian War. On July 9, they were ambushed by French forces near the Monongahela River in Pennsylvania and Braddock was killed. Washington was able to rally the survivors into an orderly retreat, preventing the defeat from becoming a rout.

Washington had two horses shot out from under him during the fighting and bullet holes pierced his coat and hat, but the man himself escaped unscathed. Washington would go on to lead the Continental Army to victory in the War for Independence, preside over the Constitutional Convention, and serve as the first President of the United States of America.

It’s an obvious truth that things happen. Had one of those bullets at the Monongahela been an inch to the right or to the left, the name of Washington would have been lost to history, and everything after would have played out very differently. How many stray bullets have ended the lives of men who might otherwise have become great movers of history? We can never know. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that God moves the levers of history for His own purposes.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28 ESV

Yesterday, Donald Trump was shot while speaking in Butler, Pennsylvania, a mere 30 miles from where Washington survived the Battle of the Monogahela. Whether it was a bullet that pierced his ear or a piece of shrapnel, either way Trump escaped death by inches. Call it happenstance, call it luck, call it what you will, but if you believe in a living God who cares about the affairs of this world, then you can’t deny that divine providence was at work yesterday.

Our God is living and eternal. He is the same God who created the world from nothing, who called Abraham away from the pagan nations, who saved David from the lion, the bear, and the Philistine giant. Ours is the same God who judged His people, and then restored them, the same God who sent His Son to die and rise again to save all who follow Him. He is the same God who stood with the martyrs throughout history, who moved men throughout the ages to great feats of courage and piety, who wasn’t done with George Washington in 1755.

God is not done with Donald Trump and America either. There are no guarantees in life, and only God knows the future, but it’s up to each of us to play our parts in the grand story.

No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me, declares the LORD.

Isaiah 54:17 ESV

Feature image by Anna Moneymaker of Getty Images