Trusting In God’s Unfailing Goodness

There is the principle of trust in God’s unfailing goodness, in good times and in bad.  When Fontaine was unable to find a living as a preacher/minister, he would not make himself a burden to others, and considered ways of providing for his family.  In Barnstable, he worked as a manufacturer of textiles (a trait that was deeply embedded within this family), and as an importer/exporter of textiles, while in Ireland, he set up a fishing company, commenting that he “was a preacher who hoped to become a fisherman, the opposite of the apostles.”  Each of these ventures was blessed with a measure of success, but due to circumstances beyond his control, each left him poverty-stricken.  Yet he never complained, and with grace he accepted both the good times and the bad as from the Lord.

In the church, God, in his sovereign grace, at times blesses the ministry of the Gospel in quite spectacular ways; believers are encouraged and built up in their most holy faith, and sinners are converted to Christ.  What lovely times they are!  How sweet are those times when newly converted sinners come to you and tell you that God has dealt savingly with their souls.  To hear the sound of a new convert’s first words of prayer in the prayer meeting is indescribable.  We can give God all the praise and glory for these special times of blessing.  This is summer time in the church. 

But when the winter arrives, and things are not proceeding as we think they should; or when active opposition to the Gospel begins to raise its ugly head; or when 'believers' are doing all kinds of “dirty tricks” against the minister, well that’s a different story.  It is easier to see the hand of Satan at work in these times, than it is to see the over-ruling providence of God rolling out his sovereign and mysterious purposes for the church.  Yes, we can accept the good times from the Lord, but we have difficulty accepting the bad times from him.  We need to learn from Fontaine that glorifying God means accepting whatever his providence supplies.  Remember, it is his “provide–ance” for us, for our good, for our ultimate salvation, and for his eternal glory.  Fontaine learned this from experience, and stands as a ‘real time’ example and inspiration to us today.

That’s very difficult to accept at times.  To have your most precious thing removed from you, is extremely difficult to accept.  And to see the invisible hand of our good Father at times like this is most challenging.  Only by accepting the good and the bad from our Father can we know the peace of God ruling in our hearts.