Providence and Prudence, Compatible Truths About Sovereignty

Understanding the sovereignty of God requires the recognition that sovereignty is not the same as fatalism. God’s sovereignty is worked out through the providential care of a personal God, not through random acts leading to unavoidable and impersonal results. The Immanence of God—his personal nearness—distinguishes providence from fatalism:

• Providence = a relational God who is vitally engaged with his creation, loves hiss people, and will hold us responsible for our responses.

• Fatalism = indiscriminate fate that makes our response is futile.

Additionally, the fact that God uses (ordains) “means” to accomplish “ends” distinguishes sovereignty from fatalism. In providence, God sovereignly accomplishes his intended outcomes through the laws and means he has ordained. Thus, when God sovereignly provides a man with food (end), he ordinarily provides a man with a job (means) (cf., 2 These 3:10). The overwhelming majority of the time God accomplishes His sovereign ends through providential means.

Those who understand sovereignty also recognize that God’s providential rule over all things does not contradict the need for prayer in every circumstance. Providence and prayer are not mutually exclusive because God has ordained to accomplish some things through the means of prayer (cf., Gen 18:20-23, 19:29). The same is true in evangelism, God sovereignly saved you, but he used the providential means of the preached word (Rom 10:13-17) to do it.

In both prayer and evangelism, those who understand sovereignty recognize that providence and prudence always go together in God’s will.

Through God’s revealed will he has made it clear that the prudence of his people is the primary means by which He accomplishes certain purposes. Jerry Bridges has defined prudence in this way:

“to use all legitimate, biblical means at our disposal to avoid harm to ourselves or others and to bring about what we believe to be the right course of events” (Jerry Bridges, Trusting God, 114).

This kind of prudence is not only pleasing to the Lord, it is used by the Lord to accomplish his sovereign purposes (cf., Acts 27:22-26, 31). Of course, sometimes providence “overrules” prudence, but ordinarily God sovereignly work in conjunction with our prudence (i.e., the doctrine of concurrence). The exceptions, however, do not mean that prudence isn’t important. Sometimes the “sluggard” eats well, while the diligent or are humbled. (Ecc 2:21), but even in these instances God holds us responsible for our “prudence” (or faithfulness).