to pray that God will carry them through hazards, care for them, and be present to them amid ordinary and extraordinary human struggles. Without God’s providing, the act of praying would be absurd (Augustine, Of the Work of Monks 31–37, NPNF 1 III, pp. 518–21). The Belgic Confession of 1561 stated: “This doctrine affords us unspeakable consolation, since we are taught thereby that nothing can befall us by chance, but by the direction of our most gracious and heavenly Father, who watches over us