Teaching Resources International

The Providence of God … (May 2026 Update) 

Wouldn’t it be great to know what was going to happen before it happened? We could take another route before a major accident was going to happen. We could evacuate before a hurricane or tornado struck our home. Or we could avoid bad and costly decisions by knowing what was going to happen in the future. We could know what was ahead, and we could prepare for whatever was going to happen. 

That’s what makes the providence of God one of the most comforting doctrines for believers! He sees ahead and makes provision for His children. The word “providence” is a compound word in Latin – “pro” meaning before, and “video” meaning to see ahead of before. Providence means that God sees ahead or sees before anything happens. This should be a great comfort to believers. We do not see the future, but God does! He not only knows and sees everything that will happen before it happens, but He also makes provision for His children in every circumstance. What a comfort “providence” is to the child of God.  

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Thankful Hearts … (November 2025 Update)

We watch a lot of old movies in our family. Since we are studying about the time just before World War I in homeschool, we watched one of my all-time favorites: Fiddler on the Roof. This movie is actually based on a series of stories called “Tevye the Milkman” by a Jewish Ukrainian author, Sholem Aleichem. We love all the songs, especially “L’Chaim” (“To Life”). One verse in the song sums up the biblical attitude that we should have toward thankfulness. Tevye sings: “God would like us to be joyful even when our hearts lie panting on the floor; How much more can we be joyful, when there’s really something to be joyful for.” 

As believers, we have so much to be thankful for – even when things are not going well. In his book, The Godly Man’s Picture Drawn with a Scripture Pencil, Thomas Watson says, 

Praise and thanksgiving is the work of heaven and he [the godly man] begins that work here which he will always be doing in heaven. The Jews have a saying – the world subsists by three things: the law, the worship of God and thankfulness. As if where thankfulness was missing, one of the pillars of the world had been taken away and it was ready to fall.

The psalmist says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so” (Psalm 107:2) and “it is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord” (Psalm 92:1). As we approach this Thanksgiving holiday, it is good for us to think biblically about our thankfulness. Here are some thoughts from Thomas Watson about thankfulness that may help us to have truly thankful hearts, “even when our hearts lie panting on the floor.”

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