{"id":11023,"date":"2025-12-03T08:36:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T08:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=11023"},"modified":"2025-12-03T08:36:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T08:36:28","slug":"behind-a-frowning-providence-god-and-tough-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=11023","title":{"rendered":"Behind a frowning providence: God and tough times"},"content":{"rendered":"


By Robin Schumacher<\/span><\/span>, Exclusive Columnist Monday, December 01, 2025<\/span>Unsplash\/Sasha Freemind<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know about you, but 2025 has been a rough year for a lot of people, including us. And it\u2019s not over.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s the breast cancer treatment my amazing wife has gone through this year, like a champ, from which she\u2019s still recovering. Then there are the countless times I\u2019ve been pinged about other people\u2019s disease diagnoses (including a family member\u2019s surprising stage 4 cancer reveal), financial struggles, or out-of-the-blue catastrophes like a friend of my wife\u2019s brother dropping dead at a fairly young age without warning. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Bible may say, \u201cSorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad\u201d (Ecc. 7:3), but that\u2019s hard to embrace sometimes. Heck, let\u2019s be real, pretty much all the time.<\/p>\n

But the Greek philosopher\u00a0Epicurus\u00a0thought he had an answer for accepting these kinds of difficulties, which he presented as his four-part cure for anxiety (called the\u00a0tetrapharmakos<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Step one: forget God and\/or gods. Fear and punishment are associated with them, so good riddance. Step two: Don\u2019t fear death. No gods mean no fear after death, where you will be just like before you were born. Step three: Don\u2019t worry about pain. It will either subside or kill you, and if it does, see step 2. Step four: Only go after the very basics in life; stiff-arm any other desire because they lead to fruitless pursuits.<\/p>\n

I remember telling my wife about Epicurus\u2019 solution when I first learned about it in a pool we were in at a Florida resort. The guy next to us in the pool remarked, \u201cSounds right to me!\u201d and swam off. Evidently, he was oblivious to the fact that he had violated step 4.<\/p>\n

You can go down the Epicurus route if you like (many Buddhists try), but in the end, you\u2019ll find it has historically failed to address suffering that is profound, morally charged, rooted in injustice, unavoidable, or tied to responsibility. And you\u2019ll still be asking the question,\u00a0Why?<\/em>\u00a0Why me? Why this?<\/p>\n

As Christians, we know the Bible says that suffering is morally meaningful, spiritually significant, and ultimately redemptive because God is involved in history. But admit it, you and still get bugged with the\u00a0why<\/em>\u00a0question.<\/p>\n

Dr Ronald Dunn\u00a0delivers some honesty in this area when he writes, \u201cI think this is the hardest part of all. You can take just about anything, if you know why. Everywhere I go, every meeting, I’m asked \u2014 Why? … I’m going to tell you something: God will very seldom answer your question of \u201cwhy.\u201d It is not that there are no answers, it’s just that you and I probably wouldn’t be able to comprehend the answer if God were to tell us, and besides that, we have to learn to trust Him without knowing why \u2026 What we’re usually doing is saying, \u2018Lord explain yourself\u2019, calling God into account.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than putting God in the dock, we\u2019re instead supposed to remember the doctrine of God\u2019s providence. If you\u2019re unfamiliar with the term, when broken down into its Latin parts of\u00a0video<\/em>\u00a0\u201cto see\u201d and\u00a0pro<\/em>\u00a0\u201cbefore,\u201d it means \u201cto see beforehand.\u201d And no, this isn\u2019t the\u00a0prescient<\/em>\u00a0view of God\u2019s foreknowledge that says He looks down through time and sees what\u2019s going to happen. That has God learning something, which is a wee bit heretical.<\/p>\n

Instead, whereas we plan beforehand, not knowing what is going to happen, God has planned everything ahead of time for us, and because He is sovereign, everything will come to pass as He purposed.<\/p>\n

As Job said, \u201cFor he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind\u201d (Job 23:14).<\/p>\n

When it comes to the tough times we experience, in his book,\u00a0Behind a Frowning Providence<\/em>, Scottish minister\u00a0John J. Murray\u00a0tells us, \u201cThere are favorable or smiling providences and there are what appear to be dark, cross or frowning providences.\u201d The former we love; the latter is where the tough sledding occurs.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re to be honest, when the sucker punches come rolling in, we\u2019re usually more anxious to get rid of the problem than we are to find the purpose of God in it. True?<\/p>\n

But Murray shows how we can get better at that by reminding us of four important aspects of God\u2019s providence, including the ones where the smile seems turned upside down. \u00a0<\/p>\n

First, because God is perfect, the plan He has for us is perfect as well. It may not appear that way sometimes, but it is and will ultimately lead to the greater glory of God.<\/p>\n

Next, His plan is exhaustive, includes everything, all of which is under His control. It extends down to the smallest and most casual things where \u201cThe very hairs of your head are all numbered\u201d (Matt. 10:30).<\/p>\n

Third, His plan is for our ultimate good \u2014 \u201cAnd we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose\u201d (Rom 8:28).<\/p>\n

Lastly, sometimes His plan is secret. Occasionally, we see the reasons early. Other times, it may take longer.<\/p>\n

We may think, like Job, our life has become useless and then, in a flash, find out otherwise. Or we wait 22 years like Joseph did after he was thrown into the pit by his brothers to discover the reason why.<\/p>\n

Or we don\u2019t find out in his life at all.<\/p>\n

Whether we get answers or not, we need to remember that \u201cfor now we see in a mirror dimly\u201d (1 Cor. 13:12) and have faith that God alone knows what is going to happen in advance because He has purposed it all, even while hiding it from us until it happens.<\/p>\n

In my case, I\u2019ll be honest and say I\u2019m wondering with some trepidation if 2026 will be better or worse for my family and close friends than 2025. When I start feeling anxious about that, I\u2019ll be looking to a portion of a poem (Light Shining Out of Darkness<\/em>) penned by English poet and Anglican hymn writer\u00a0William Cowper\u00a0that reminds all of us about the trust we need to maintain in our God, who has planned each of our days with ultimately good purposes:<\/p>\n

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread<\/em>
Are big with mercy, and shall break<\/em>
In blessings on your head.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,<\/em>
But trust Him for His grace;<\/em>
Behind a frowning providence<\/em>
He hides a smiling face.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

His purposes will ripen fast,<\/em>
Unfolding ev’ry hour;<\/em>
The bud may have a bitter taste,<\/em>
But sweet will be the flow’r.<\/em><\/p>\n

Robin Schumacher is an accomplished software executive and Christian apologist who has written many articles, authored and contributed to several Christian books, appeared on nationally syndicated radio programs, and presented at apologetic events. He holds a BS in Business, Master’s in Christian apologetics and a Ph.D. in New Testament. His latest book is, A Confident Faith: Winning people to Christ with the apologetics of the Apostle Paul.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Robin Schumacher, Exclusive Columnist Monday, December 01, 2025Unsplash\/Sasha Freemind I don\u2019t know about you, but 2025 has been a rough year for a lot of people, including us. And it\u2019s not over. There\u2019s the breast cancer treatment my amazing wife has gone through this year, like a champ, from which she\u2019s still recovering. Then<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[2538,182,2539,1690,2540],"class_list":{"0":"post-11023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-christian-living","8":"tag-frowning","9":"tag-god","10":"tag-providence","11":"tag-times","12":"tag-tough"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}