God’s Preservation of the World.
Upholding all things by the word of His power. H eb.1,3.
We believe that God preserves us and all creatures. We con
fess: “ He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to
support this body and life.” God created the world, and now He
does not stand aloof. No, He fills heaven and earth; His almightyDAILY BBEAD.
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presence permeates all things, and He operates incessantly. Jesus
says: “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” God wills and
causes the continuance of the created world. He sustains and pre
serves every part of it. In Acts 17 we read: “ God is not far from
every one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being.”
Without Him we would have no existence at all. Without Him we
could neither live nor move nor even breathe. Our pulse could not
beat one minute without His upholding power.
And this is true not only of man, but of every living creature.
God prepares and guards every blade of grass, every leaflet on the
trees, and every grain in the fields. He sustains sun, moon, and
stars on their daily circuit around the earth, and no less the little
bird twittering in the trees and the tiny flower blooming unseen
by the eyes of man. The greatest and the least have His equal care.
Everywhere is the actively sustaining presence of the living God.
And especially upon man does God bestow loving care. Every
thing was made for man, and all creatures are subservient to man’s
welfare. In particular, however, God cares for His Church. It is
for the sake of His Church that He sustains the earth and all there
is in it. When God’s elect have all been gathered, the world will
cease. The prime purpose of the preservation of the world is the
holy Christian Church, God’s Kingdom of Grace.
God has ordained to provide for our sustenance by means of
the labor of our hands. Despite our labor, however, it remains true
that it is God who preserves us; for it is He who gives and sustains
to us strength, health, skill, and ability, which enable us to obtain
our daily bread.
