providence redux

As a Calvinist, I am often approached with the question, "how much control does God have?" I tend to read into that question more of a statement, i.e., "if you only realized that you are saying God had complete control, you would change your mind." Which is interesting because the more I understand just how in control God is, the more convinced it is true and cannot be any other way.

John Piper posted today a list of examples from Scripture of God's providence.

• “I have commanded the ravens to feed you there” (1Kings 17:4)
• “The Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah” (Jonah 4:6).
• “God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered” (Jonah 4:7).
• “I will send swarms of flies on you and your servants” (Exodus 8:21).
• “He summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread” (Psalms 105:16).
• “He gave them hail for rain” (Psalms 105:32).
• “He spoke, and the locusts came” (Psalms 105:34).
• “The Lord will whistle for . . . the bee that is in the land of Assyria” (Isaiah 7:18).
• “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord” (Proverbs 16:33).
• “Even the wind and the sea obey him” (Mark 4:41).
• “He removes kings and sets up kings” (Daniel 2:21).
• “Even the unclean spirits, and they obey him” (Mark 1:27).
• “He upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3).

He then quotes excerpts from the Heidelberg Catechism.

What do you mean by the providence of God? (Question 27)

The almighty and everywhere present power of God; whereby, as it were by his hand, he upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all creatures; so that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, yea, and all things come, not by chance, but by his fatherly hand.

What advantage is it to us to know that God has created, and by his providence does still uphold all things? (Question 28)

That we may be patient in adversity; thankful in prosperity; and that in all things, which may hereafter befall us, we place our firm trust in our faithful God and Father, that nothing shall separate us from his love; since all creatures are so in his hand, that without his will they cannot so much as move.