This post will begin a five part series on how the Lord has used the teaching of Frank Hamrick, recorded in the study Mighty Through God, to direct me in my Grace Journey. This first installment will be a personal narrative, and the remaining four will be direct excerpts from the study. My prayer is that the thoughts expressed will be a blessing to my readers.

While sitting in an alcove at the St. Louis Airport on a February night in 1996 I worked through an exercise of examining the evident workings of God’s providence in our lives at the time. That was a revelation to me! No, I’m not saying that I received new revelation from the Lord, but rather that I stumbled on to some very timely and tested scriptural truths that had been there all the time. But I needed a teacher to show me the way.

I was returning to Minnesota from a job interview in North Carolina that would become our new home four months later. This trip was at the invitation of Frank Hamrick, founder of Positive Action for Christ, and it led me to 18 years of fruitful ministry with him and the staff at PAFC. Most of all, it led me to some life-changing teaching from Frank that was both simple and profound. He impacted me with an emphasis on studying the God of the Word, and seeing the works and wonders of our great God in the pages of scripture.

It started a month earlier with what seemed to be a chance encounter with Frank in the dining hall at Northland Camp in frigid northern Wisconsin. I was looking for a ministry, and Frank was looking for someone with specific ministry experience – and God in His providence brought us together. As I sat in the airport a month later I could not miss the steps that the Lord had ordered to bring me to that point. And so I sat with a copy of Frank’s “Providence Journal” and filled in the blanks. I learned that Frank had created a form to recall, record and review the steps of God’s working in a particular situation. That journal included; what God did, the timing…and several other steps…that revealed what God was doing, and how He was leading at a particular time.

In Psalms 77:10-15 the writer declares……“This is my anguish; But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the works of the LORD; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will also meditate on all Your work, And talk of Your deeds… Who is so great a God as our God? You are the God who does wonders; You have declared Your strength among the peoples. You have with Your arm redeemed Your people…”

The works and wonders of God can be identified as the evidence of the Sovereign’s almighty hand in His providential dealings with His children and mankind in general. One commentator makes this observation:

“…God, in his providence, is at work through our circumstances…He is at work in every circumstance, orchestrating in one way or another, a symphony of goodness and glory. He produces, arranges and weaves every event to work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose. And though the threads seem dark and rough to us at times they are all in his good and strong sovereign hands.”

Frank Hamrick then ties these biblical principles together to teach that through utilizing meditation we can learn how God’s providential dealings with mankind are given in Bible examples, and revealed in our lives, to develop conquering faith. Frank gives these thoughts:

“Biblical examples abound of saints who had great faith because they had focused on what God had done in the past.”

• Numbers 14:19: Moses remembers that God has forgiven Israel many times since they left Egypt and thus believes that He will forgive them again.
• 1 Samuel 17:37: David’s faith conquers Goliath because he remembers that God has given him victory over a lion and a bear in the past.
• Psalm 77:4-6, 11-15: Asaph is afflicted, but he remembers all the providences of God in his own life and in the lives of others; and so he takes heart.”

God’s Providence is seen in how God works in our lives. God’s Grace provides His works, and supports His purposes, in our lives for our good and His glory.

The next four blog posts will offer excerpts from Mighty Through God to share the essence of that helpful study. Copies of the eight lesson study can be ordered from Positive Action for Christ, P.O Box 700, Whitakers, NC 27891 or call 800-688-3008, or click the link above and order online.