In Steve Job’s 2005 Standford commencement address, he said:

“… you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

That is probably one of the best nonreligious partial explanations of providence I have ever read. He correctly observes that you can’t connect all of the events of your life until you look back on them. He also nails the absolute requirement of trust or faith that the dots somehow will connect in the future.

His poor man’s providence misses the most critical thing about dot-connecting and faith.

You should trust your life to the personal God of infinite intelligence who can connect the dots because he knows the future.

“Your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever” doesn’t have infinite intelligence.

I get that he is saying you have to trust something, and in his view, it doesn’t matter what it is. But do you want to trust your life to abstract concepts that aren’t intelligent?

Can your gut see the future? “Destiny, life, karma” are just concepts without infinite personal intelligence. None of these can see the future, let alone know all the possible combinations of people, events, and circumstances to connect the dots of your life.

The Bible reveals an infinite intelligence, a personal God who knows the future and can connect his will’s dots. He can connect the dots in your life, consistent with his will if you trust in him.

The power of providence is the power of specific faith in the God of infinite intelligence.

You can’t just believe in “whatever” and expect the dots to be connected.

The Bible is very specific.

But without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).

That is radically different than saying that it will all somehow work out in the end. If you want God to connect your dots, you have to believe He exists AND diligently seek Him.

One Of The Best Connect The Dots Story In The Bible

The latter part of the book of Genesis tells Joseph’s story (Genesis 37-50). Please take some time to read the Bible’s account of Joseph’s life. For this article, I will just hit the highlights of how God connected the dots in his life.

How Would You Handle These Dots?

• His father loved him more than his other children, giving him unique clothing, causing his brothers to hate his guts (Genesis 37:2-4).
• He starts having dreams that he tells to his family that seem to mean that he is superior to them, causing them to hate his guts more and even makes his father wonder about him (Genesis 37:18-38).
• His brothers decide to murder him and make it look like an accident. They take a lunch break and choose to sell him into slavery in a foreign land and fake his death (Genesis 37:25-35).
• He ends up being sold by the Midianites to Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh and the guard captain. (Genesis 37:36). Alone, away from home, in a foreign country, betrayed by his brothers.
• He turns out to be a great slave, being trusted to run the whole place by his new owner. He’s young, good looking, and his owner’s wife keeps trying to get him to sleep with her. He continuously turns her down, explaining how that would be wrong to her husband and God. She makes up a false attempted rape story, and he gets thrown into prison (Genesis 39:19-23).
• In prison, he turns out to be a great prisoner. The jailor puts him in charge of everything. He happens to interpret two dreams of fellow prisoners who happen to have worked with Pharaoh. He tells the one who is getting out of jail and going back to Pharaoh to remember him when he gets out. He forgets about him, and he stays in prison for two more years (Genesis 40:12-15; 41:1).
• He finally gets out of jail and gets to interpret Pharaoh’s dream. Pharaoh put him in charge of the whole country of Egypt. He’s the number one man. Thirteen years have passed since his family sold him out (Genesis 41).

How would you react to your family, to life, to God if you had these dots to deal with? Today, many people would blame their parents, their siblings, life, and God for all of their misfortune. Many people would reject a belief in God if he allowed these types of dots to come into their lives. Somehow Joseph found a way to keep his faith in God despite the dots he was dealt.

How did he do it? Learn from his story the powerful actions you can take while you wait for God to connect your dots.

God Will Be With You If You Will Be With God.

God isn’t mentioned by name until chapter 39 in the story where we read:

“The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand. (Genesis 39:2-3). … 8 But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand. 9 There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:8-9). … 21 But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. 22 And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing. 23 The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper. (Genesis 39:21-23).

Regardless of what happened or the consequences he kept his faith and kept living for God. He believed God could arrange even unfair, unjust, and unpleasant dots. If you want the power of providence in your life you want to keep on living for God. Do what is true regardless of the consequences.

Forget The Past And Move Forward

After Joseph was promoted to be second in command he was married to Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On (Genesis 41:45). He had two sons by her.

Another insight into how he invoked the power of providence is revealed in what he named his sons.

His firstborn, he named Manasseh: “For God has made me forget all of my toil and all my father’s house” (Genesis 41:51).

How can you put thirteen years of a dark and twisted road in the review mirror? God being with him all the way allowed him to forget all of the heartbreak and toil.

Some people can never move forward in their life because they can’t forget all of the wrong dots they have gone through. They constantly relive the past and, therefore, are not changing their future.

Philippians 3:13-15 reflects this forget the past and keep focused on moving toward the goal.

13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.

Where you have been is not as important as where you are going. Stay focused on the goal and let God help you forget the past.

Be Fruitful Where You Are

His second son’s name gives us another principle for what to do while God connects your dots.

“And the name of the second he called Ephraim: “For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction” (Genesis 41:52).

Sometimes people wait until all of the dots are aligned just right before they take action. But if you want God to connect your dots, you need to be doing what you can, where you are, with what you have.

It didn’t matter if he was in a foreign land, a slave, or in prison. Joseph continued to live for God regardless of the dots and was fruitful where he was.

Some people are waiting on God to change all of their dots instantly so they don’t have to go through them.

Don’t wait for your circumstances to change. Be fruitful where you are, knowing that somehow God will connect the dots.

Forgive Because You See How God Connected The Dots

Jobs was correct. You can only see how the dots connect by looking backward. When Joseph looked back over his life, he learned one of the greatest lessons of providence. Forgive because you can see how God connected your dots.

Can you imagine what his brothers thought when they found out that the most powerful man in Egypt they were standing before was their brother that they had betrayed? Joseph’s reply must have surprised them.

5 But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; (Genesis 45:5-8).

19 Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? 20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive (Genesis 50:19)

His brothers thought he would seek vengeance against them for the terrible things they had done. Having gone through all of the other dots, he could see how the hand of God had put him exactly where he needed to be when he needed to be there. He could understand how the dots were bigger, higher, and better than any of them could have imagined. Only by looking backward and seeing how God connected the dots gave him the heart to forgive.

He got to this understanding by trusting in the God of infinite intelligence despite all obstacles, being with God so God would be with him, forgetting the past and moving forward, being fruitful where he was, and forgiving because he could finally see how the dots connected.

The New Testament makes a definite promise about God’s providence:

28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover, whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

Do you love God?

Have you been called according to his purpose?

Are you being conformed to the image of his Son?

Most people make the mistake of only thinking about their personal life’s dots and not the big picture. Men plan for a lifetime (if they plan at all). God prepares men for eternity.

God is calling through the gospel for all to become Christians (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14; Acts 2:38-39). Have you obeyed the call (Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:38-39)?

I pray that in God’s providence, our paths crossed today so that you may trust and obey Jesus Christ.

Kevin Huddleston