The Consolation of God's Providence

[The Christian’s] comfort, I say, is to know that his heavenly Father so holds all things in his power, so rules by his authority and will, so governs by his wisdom, that nothing can happen except he determine it. Moreover, it comforts him to know that he has been received into God’s safekeeping and entrusted to the care of his angels, and that neither water, nor fire, nor iron can harm him, except in so far as it pleases God as governor to give them occasion...

[T]he leaf hanging from the tree does not fall, nor does anything else whatever happen without God’s providence and will either intending it as a particular or permitting it as a particular. This is the greatest consolation of the righteous, who place all their hope in God and rest comfortably in the shadow of the wings of His providence, desiring that in both prosperity and adversity God’s will with regard to them might always be fulfilled.

...[T]here is great comfort for the believer. First, it’s comforting to know that God’s ‘Plan A’ is sure to be realized because God is working everything—even our sins and mistakes in judgment, as well as external threats and calamities—together for good. We never have to fear falling into a ‘Plan B.’ Second, it’s comforting to be liberated from the anxiety of having to figure out God’s secret will for our lives and to focus on knowing his revealed word. Third, we are comforted by the fact that God has revealed his purposes in what seemed to human beings to be nothing more than the tragic end to a good man in the death of Jesus. I may not know how God will work together my mistakes, sins, and foolishness for my good and his glory. However, I do know that he has triumphed over evil ultimately in Christ. ‘None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory’ (1 Co 2:8). The revelation now of this mystery is all we need for our confidence that our lives are not tragic and meaningless, as they might seem to us at times. With Christ’s resurrection, we’re already able to catch a glimpse of the ending (which is really the beginning) even in the middle of the story.