Providence is the way in which the Lord constantly governs everything. It is there in every moment of life and in every circumstance. We cannot put ourselves outside divine providence, which seeks in countless unknown ways to bring us into heaven, while always leaving us in freedom to reject its guidance if we so choose.

We are unaware of the activity of providence. If we were aware, we would try to avoid it or bend it, thinking that we know better.

For those who wish to live rightly and try to do so, providence is like an unseen and unfelt current that bears them along toward heaven like a ship on an ocean current. For those who wish to live in their selfish loves, providence keeps them in an equilibrium between good and evil influences so that they can, if they wish, change their ways.

Providence is the Lord’s, and He is infinite love and infinite wisdom, which we need to keep in mind if we find ourselves wondering if we could do better at running things.

Swedenborg published a 300 page book about the Divine Providence. The first chapter heading is definitive; "The Divine Providence is the Government of the Lord’s Divine Love and Wisdom." Everyone is under that government. We are free to accept the direction of the Lord’s leading or not; our freedom is paramount. The Lord will always knock, but we must open the door to Him.

There are five laws of divine providence:

1. A person should act from freedom according to reason.

2. A person should, as-from-self, remove evils as sins from his/her externals. In that way, and in no other way, the Lord can remove evils in the internal person, and then at the same time in the external.

3. People should not be compelled by external means to think and will, and thus to believe and love, the things of religion. Rather, they should persuade and at times compel themselves to do so.

4. People should be taught and led by the Lord from heaven by means of the Word, and doctrine and preaching from the Word, and this should happen, to all appearances, as if they are acting indendently.

5. People should not perceive and feel anything of the operation of the divine providence, but still we should know about it and acknowledge it.

(références: Arcana Coelestia 609, 1755, 3854, 3951, 5155; Divine Providence 21, 22, 23, 27, 55-60, 232, 234, 278 [1-3], 322)

23. The Lord provides for the union of what is good and true in others by the balance between heaven and hell. What is evil and what is false are continually breathing out together from hell, and what is good and what is true are continually breathing out together from heaven. Every one of us is kept in that balance as long as we are living in this world, and this is what gives us our freedom to think, intend, speak, and act, the freedom in which we can be reformed. (On this spiritual balance that gives us our freedom, see Heaven and Hell 589-596, 597-603).

21. 9. The Lord's divine providence works things out so that what is both evil and false promotes balance, comparison, and purification, which means that it promotes the union of what is good and true in others. It follows from what has just been said that the Lord's divine providence is constantly working to unite what is true with what is good and what is good with what is true within us, because this union is the church and heaven. This union exists in the Lord and in everything that emanates from him. It is because of this union that heaven is called "a marriage," as is the church; so in the Word the kingdom of God is compared to a marriage. This union is the reason the Sabbath was the holiest part of worship in the Israelite church, since it means that union. This is also why there is a marriage of what is good and what is true throughout the Word and in every detail of it (see Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Sacred Scripture 80-90).

The marriage of what is good and what is true comes from the marriage of the Lord and the church, and this in turn comes from the marriage of love and wisdom in the Lord. Goodness is actually a matter of love, and truth is a matter of wisdom. We can see from this that the constant objective of divine providence is to unite what is good to what is true and what is true to what is good within us. This is how we are united to the Lord.