God is active in our world today. It is unreasonable to think that He would create a world such as ours and then take no interest in it. Paul’s statement, “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28), demonstrates His interest in our world. Since this promise must be true, then the real question lies in how God will act to carry this out.

Many believe that the only way God can act in our world is through miracles (acts of direct intervention, above and beyond nature). He does not act through miracles today, however, because with the full revelation of His written word, there is no longer a need for miracles. Paul said miraculous gifts would cease when the perfect revelation of God’s will occurred (see 1 Corinthians 13:8-10; James 1:25). The age of miracles has passed, but God still intervenes through His providence. “Providence” comes from the Latin providentia, meaning foresight. God’s providence is His indirect, non-miraculous support and care of His creation, from its very beginning through eternity. His providence includes not only a general providence over all creation, but also a special providence over His children, such as is demonstrated in the power of prayer (James 5:16).

  We see the difference between miracles, God’s direct intervention, and providence, God’s indirect intervention, by comparing parallel events such as the conception of Christ and the conception of Samuel. The virgin Mary, even before she and Joseph her espoused husband came together, was found “with child of the Holy Ghost,” as Isaiah had prophesied (Matthew 1:18-25). The conception of Christ was thus unique, a miracle, God’s direct intervention in time and history to send the Messiah. On the other hand, Hannah, a righteous woman was barren (unable to have children), so she prayed to God to send her a son. She promised to dedicate the son to His service. Returning home, “Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the LORD remembered her. Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD” (1 Samuel 1:19-20). The conception of Samuel was not a miracle. God, through His providential care, worked through the laws of nature to bring Samuel to Hannah.

In providence, God works “behind the scenes.” We may not realize His providential care until much later. Joseph went from favor in his father’s house to slavery in Potiphar’s house, and from prison to authority in Pharaoh’s palace. Each step of the way he was in God’s providence, although neither he nor his family understood. With the exception of his interpretation of dreams, there was nothing miraculous in the whole chain of events as God providentially preserved His people. As he returned the slave Onesimus to Philemon, Paul said, “perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him for ever” (Philemon 1:15). Paul realized that “perhaps” it was God’s providence. God continues his providential care of His children.