Yesterday's podcast ended with words about the mystery of providence.

And maybe that expression is familiar to you because it's the title of a well-known

and wonderfully helpful book written by a man called John Flaville.

He was a minister in the south coast

of England in the 17th century, and he knew a great deal of suffering. If you've ever read

any of his works, there are actually six large volumes of them. I think you'll agree with me that

it must have been a tremendous blessing to have had John Flavill as your minister. But like

many of his colleagues in the 17th century, he went through very difficult times. And yet,

they were God's investments in his ministry. So it's not surprising in a way that he was able

to write a wonderful book on the providence of God.

And he describes God's providence in what I think is a very clever and helpful way.

He wrote that the providences of God are like Hebrew words.

They can be read only backwards. Now you know that Hebrew is written from right words. They can be read only backwards. Now, you know that Hebrew is written from right to left,

not as English, from left to right, and so if you get a Hebrew book, you might think that the

back of the book is the front of the book and vice versa. And God's providence is like that, isn't it? In terms of the way we think,

it sometimes seems back to front. And you can't second guess God's providences in your life,

although most of us, I think, do that at some point. The Lord leads us to do something, and we tend to assume that that for certain things will

follow, but that's not always the case.

His ways are not our ways.

His thoughts are not ours.

Sometimes, indeed, we assume that if we are obedient, then everything will then kind of follow out

towards fulfilling our own expectations. And then sometimes it seems as though life crumbles

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