Think on these things!

I brought a single book besides the Bible to Australia, A Body of Divinity by Thomas Watson.  It was originally printed in 1692, and the truth it contains remains to this day.  I would like to quote a paragraph from the book concerning the wisdom of God.  It's rather long, but as a gourmet meal is not prepared in 10 seconds, deep thoughts or a spiritual nature are rarely conveyed in a sentence.

The wisdom of God wonderfully appears in the works of His providence.  Every providence has a mercy or a wonder wrapt up in it.  The wisdom of God, in His works of providence, appears.  (I.) By effecting great things by small contemptible means.  He cured the stung Israelites by a brazen serpent.  If some sovereign antidote had been used, if the balm of Gilead had been brought, there had been some likelihood of a cure; but what was there in a brazen serpent?  It was a mere image, and not applied to him that was wounded, he was to look upon it only; yet this wrought a cure.  The less probability in the instrument, the more is God's wisdom seen. (2.) The wisdom of God is seen in doing His work by that which to the eye of flesh seem quite contrary.  God intended to advance Joseph, and to make all his brethrens' sheaves bow to his sheaf.  Now, what way does He take?  First Joseph is thrown into the pit; then sold into Egypt; then after that put in prison (Gen. 39:20).  By his imprisonment God made way for his advancement.  For God to save in an ordinary way would not so much display His wisdom.  But when He goes strangely to work, and saves in that very way in which we think He will destroy, his wisdom shines forth in a most conspicuous manner.  God would make Israel victorious, and what way does He take?  He lessens Gideon's army.  'The people that are with thee are too many' (Judg. 7:2).  He reduces the army of two and thirty thousand to three hundred; and by taking away the means of victory makes Israel victorious.  God had a design to bring His people out of Egypt, and a strange course He takes to effect it.  He stirred up the hearts of the Egyptians to hate them.  'He turned their heart to hate His people' (Ps. 105:25).  The more they hated and oppressed Israel, the more God plagued the Egyptians, and the more glad they were to let Israel go (Ex. 12:33).  The Egyptians were urgent upon Israel, that they might end them out of the land in haste.  God had a mind to save Jonah when he was cast into the sea, and He let the fish swallow him up, and so brought him to the shore.  God would save Paul, and all that were in the ship with him, but the ship must break, and they all came safe to land upon the broken pieces of the ship (Acts 27:44).  In reference to the church, God often goes by contrary means, and makes the enemy do His work.  He can make a straight stroke with a crooked stick.  He has often made His church grow and flourish by persecution.  'The showers of blood have made her more fruitful,' say Julian.  Ex. 1:10: 'Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply.  Verse 12:  'The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied;' like ground, the more it is harrowed the better crop it bears.  The apostles were scattered by reason of persecution, and their scattering was like that scattering of seed; they went up and down, and preached the gospel, and brought daily converts.  Paul was put in prison, and his bonds were the means of spreading the gospel (Phil. 1:12).

Consider the wisdom of God at work in your own life:  can you not see His great handiwork?  He is great and above all and uses the weak instrumentality of our flesh and the circumstances of this life to fulfill His purposes.  Rejoice in the LORD always, again I say rejoice!  The One who allows you to abound and lack will sustain you through the dry and rainy seasons alike.  The One who knows your frame also knows your feelings.  He knows your circumstances well, for it is He that ordained them.  He wants to use all things to refine and mold us into the image of Christ that He may be glorified.  Should we not glorify our God for these things?