The Bible's teaching of providential concurrence is that "God directs, and works through, the distinctive properties of each created thing, so that these things themselves brings about the results that we see. (Wayne Gruden, Systematic Theology, Grand Rapids, MI, Zondervan, 1994, p. 319) So we would say that events are caused by God, the Creator. But we would also say that events are caused by the creature. The difference between practical atheism and trusting in God's providential care is a thin line here. It is determined by your answer to this question: Is God the primary cause of all plans? Does he initiate everything? Creaturely causes are vital, we would never deny them. But they are rightly understood as secondary causes, even though they are the causes that are the most evident to us. What is true in nature, and in seemingly random events, is certainly true in all of the activity of our lives, so that the Scriptures teach that God our Father plans all our days before there were yet any of them (Psalm 139:16), that all of our actions are under His providential ordering, for in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28), and it is not man who directs his steps (Jeremiah 10:23).
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Success and failure in our lives come from God. As Psalm 75:6-7 says: "No one from the east or the west or from the desert can exalt a man. But it is God who judges: He brings one down, He exalts another." Talent and abilities are from the Lord. What do you have that you did not receive? And what is it that you received that you can boast of as if it were not a gift? (1 Cor. 4:7)
In all of our lives and actions, as with the grass and the dice, God acts as the primary cause therein, but He does so in such a way as to make room for all of our responsible choices. Our actions are always significant. The Bible would always say that we are responsible and our decisions are very, very important. From our point of view, we could even think of them as determinative, but God's providence is primary. That's the difference between the deist or practical atheist and the Christian, for the believer in the Lord says that all of our days, all of our successes and failures, all of our abilities and inabilities and all of our joys and disappointments come from the hand of God's providence, even as we do our parts. So as Spurgeon said, "Fate is blind, but providence has eyes."
Providence and God's heart
Christians often attach another word when speaking of God's providence. It's care. We speak of the providential care of God. God moves on His people's behalf to bend all of history and all the circumstances of our lives toward our ultimate benefit.