God’s providence; He gives

Dr Edward Tamale-Sali

“He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless” (Isaiah 40:29 NLT).
God is the provider for two reasons: the first one is because He is a provider, and the second one is because we are beneficiaries of His provision. You might argue that since I do not know you, I am not sure God has provided for you.
But I can assure you, the Lord provided the eyes and the brain you are using to read this.

Ordinary suppliers
For us to understand God’s provision, we need to begin by looking at ordinary things in our daily lives.
For example, electricity. For power to be in your switch at home or office, it must be generated from distant major power plants.
I am not an electrician, but I want us to look at this process from a layman’s point of view. Uganda has power plants that generate and supply power for distribution to various parts of the country.
According to uegcl.co.ug, these are the five major power stations:
l Kiira power station: The 200MW Kiira power station is located in Kimaka, Jinja district in eastern Uganda. It is also known as Owen Falls Extension.
l Nalubaale power station: The 180MW Nalubaale power station, formerly known as Owen Falls Dam, is located along River Nile in Jinja district. It is operated and maintained by Eskom Uganda Limited under Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited (UEGCL) contract.
l Karuma hydro power station: The 600MW Karuma hydro power station is located on the River Nile in Kiryandongo district, 110Km downstream of Lake Kyoga and 270Km north of Kampala.
l Isimba hydro power station: The 183MW power station is located 4km downstream of Simba Falls on the River Nile, approximately 50km downstream off the source of Nile.
l Muzizi hydro power station: The 44.7MW Muzizi station is located along River Muzizi in Kibaale district. Its footprints, however, extend to Kabarole, Kyenjojo and Ntooroko districts in the western part of Uganda.
These are the power plants responsible for the generation of hydro-electricity you use in your house or business.
We have as much electricity as these power plants supply. The electric poles and wires we see on highways transfer electricity from these power plants to the transformers that generate user-friendly electricity to our houses, companies and industries.
Every electricity watt in your wall switch or socket is a provision from one of the power plants in the country.
Electricity in our houses and workplaces is a power plant provision.
We need these power plants if we are to access electricity for our use.
This is what providence means, and it shows how we can begin to understand God’s providence in our lives.

What is providence?
It is important that we understand what specifically we mean when we talk about God’s providence.
Many scholars and teachers of the word have endeavoured to define God’s providence but for now, allow me to share two of the most interesting meanings of God’s Providence.
Leonard Woods said: “The doctrine of divine providence is that all things are sustained, directed, and controlled by God.”
Thus, God’s providence is when things in your life are sustained, directed and controlled by Him. One is under God’s providence if God is in charge of the affairs of their lives.
Another interpretation of God’s providence is got from the Heidelberg Catechism.
“The providence of God is His almighty and everywhere present power, whereby as it were by hand, He upholds and governs Heaven, Earth, and all creatures so that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, yes, and all things come, not by chance – but by his fatherly hand.”
God’s provision for you is not like the electric power plants that are permanently fixed in one distant place to exclusively provide electricity.
God’s providence is His saving might and power that is ‘always’ and ‘everywhere’ in various ways to supply particular needs and answer prayers.
Wherever you are, whatever your situation is, God is your constant provider.

He gives
This edition’s providence text reads: “He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless” (Isaiah 40:29 NLT). Look at how it begins: “He gives…” The Lord our God GIVES.
I don’t know what your need, lack, prayer request, desire, goal, wish or ambition is; what I know is what the text says: HE GIVES.
He gives power to the weak. He is the supplier of power. He gives food to the hungry (Psalm 145:15,16).
He gives the power that upholds all things (Hebrews 1:3). Whatever you are pursuing, get to grips with the truth that HE GIVES.