God's Providence (4)

Nothing should displease us that pleases God, and neither should anything be pleasing to us that displeases him. This conformity is the ground of comfort. 'If we acknowledge God in all our ways, he will direct our paths, and lead us the way that we should go' (Prov. 3:6). The quarrel between God and us is removed when his will and our will are one; when we have sacrificed ourselves and our wills to God; when, as he is highest in himself, so his will has the highest place in our hearts. We find by experience that, when our wills are so subdued, that we delight to do what God would have us do, and to be what God would have us be, then sweet peace presently rises to the soul.
When we can say, 'Lord, if you will have me poor and disgraced, I am content to be so. If you will have me serve you in this condition I am in, I will gladly do so. It is enough to me that you would have it so. I desire to yield readily, humbly, and cheerfully to your disposing providence.' A godly man says amen to God's amen and puts his will and assent to God's. As the sea turns all rivers into its own relish, so he turns all and makes whatsoever befalls him an exercise of some virtue. A heathen could say that calamities did rule over men, but a wise man has a spirit overruling all calamities, much more a Christian. For a man to be in this state, is to enjoy heaven in the world under heaven. God's kingdom comes where his will is thus done.
It is good to observe the particular signals and signs of providence, how things join and meet together. Fit occasions and suiting of things are intimations of God's will. Providence has a language which is well understood by those that have a familiar acquaintance with God's dealing; they see a train of providence leading one way more than to another.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
The Soul's Conflict with Itself, Works, vol. 1, pp. 208-11
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