How Will God Provide For My Needs? Don’t seek what you will eat or what you will drink; neither be anxious. For the nations of the world seek after all of these things, but your Father knows that you need these things. – Luke 12:29-30, WEB Sigh...if only it were that easy. For many of us however, we see ourselves as exceptions to that – we deserve to worry, don’t we?! After all, we’ve just been fired from our low-paying jobs, the rent hasn’t been paid yet, there is no food at the table, and our money is only enough for this week’s groceries. How can we not worry? Consider the ravens: they don’t sow, they don’t reap, they have no warehouse or barn, and God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than birds! – Luke 12:24, WEB But we’re not like birds, are we? We need gasoline for our cars, gas for the kitchen, insurance for our health, mortgage payments for the house, tuition for the kids, and a little extra money just in case something else goes wrong! Which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his height? If then you aren’t able to do even the least things, why are you anxious about the rest? – Luke 12:25-26, WEB Well, yeah. You’ve got a point in there. Worrying does lead us nowhere. But what else can we do? Good question, isn’t it? What ELSE can we do? Well, it seems God has given us a lot of options in there. We can do ANYTHING we can do to help solve the situation EXCEPT to WORRY! That’s right. No one ever said we should do nothing. After all, we’re not like birds, are we? We have a far more advanced mind that can think deeper and wider, that can explore various solutions available for us. That’s the more practical thing we SHOULD be doing. “But what if we couldn’t think of any solution?” we ask. Well then, if we can’t think of any, why worry? Worry isn’t ever going to be a part of the solution anyways. But trust can. Faith can. Resting in God’s wisdom and providence can. And I believe that’s the point Jesus wanted to make. Let us try to do everything within our powers, and then leave the rest to God, a Higher Power that can definitely see us through! But then we continue to ask, “We’ve only got enough for a week’s budget, or for a few days’ food. What if no help arrives after that?” God undestands our fears, and He knows that many times, we mistake those fears for a real need. What’s the difference anyways? A fear is something that may or may not happen. A need is something we have to address at the very moment where we are. So you’ve got a budget for a week’s groceries. That means God has given you the means to survive today and for the rest of the week as well. What’s bothering you is not that your current need could not be met, but a future need, a fear that may or may not come into reality. Let’s take a look at the story of ELIJAH: Elijah the Tishbite, who was one of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.” Then Yahweh’s word came to him, saying, “Go away from here, turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, that is before the Jordan. You shall drink from the brook. I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” So he went and did according to Yahweh’s word; for he went and lived by the brook Cherith that is before the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook. After a while, the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land. Yahweh’s word came to him, saying, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain you.” 1 Kings 17:1-9, WEB Since there was to be no rain for the next few years, God provided for Elijah’s needs by pointing him towards the Cherith Brook. And when the brook dried up, God instructed him to go to Zarephath, where his needs shall continue to be provided for. Notice that the brook dried up first! There was no word beforehand from the Lord saying something like, “Elijah, you shouldn’t worry about your needs. Look! I’ve found this brook for you. Sometime soon, this will also dry up, but don’t you worry. I will then send you to a widow who will feed you.” There was no assurance like that. In fact, it was only after the brook dried up that God provided for him another way by which to survive. This is very different from the way we want to be provided for. We’ve been used to having a lot of surplus in our hands, or some kind of insurance that will see us through in case some unexpected things happen. If we don’t have a big allowance like that, we become fearful because we don’t know where we’re going to find the things to address our needs. It isn’t wrong to think logically. God has indeed given us a mind to plan wisely and to take care of our finances. What’s wrong is when we LIMIT ourselves to our plans. And when our plans don’t work one way or the other, we PANIC! We lose heart, and we forget from where all good things really come from – from GOD. Our confidence and peace should not be anchored with the material things that can get stolen away from us. It should be anchored in GOD alone. That’s God’s point in wanting us to trust Him, to save us from unnecessary worries that give us so much stress and even affects our health. Let us continue with ELIJAH’s STORY: So he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her, and said, “Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink.” As she was going to get it, he called to her, and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” She said, “As Yahweh your God lives, I don’t have a cake, but a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jar. Behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go and do as you have said; but make me a little cake from it first, and bring it out to me, and afterward make some for you and for your son. For Yahweh, the God of Israel says, ‘The jar of meal will not run out, and the jar of oil will not fail, until the day that Yahweh sends rain on the earth.’” She went and did according to the saying of Elijah; and she, and he, and her house, ate many days. The jar of meal didn’t run out, and the jar of oil did not fail, according to Yahweh’s word, which he spoke by Elijah. 1 Kings 17:10-16, WEB The widow only had enough for one last meal! Note what she said: “Behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” The widow thought she and her son were already going to starve to death! And why not? All that she had was only enough for ONE LAST MEAL. But even that doesn’t say that they weren’t being provided for. They had enough for that meal. And after using everything she had, it was time for God’s providence to show itself: “...she, and he, and her house, ate many days. The jar of meal didn’t run out, and the jar of oil did not fail, according to Yahweh’s word, which he spoke by Elijah.” God provides JUST IN TIME, and not a minute late. And He provides for ALL our NEEDS, not just for food, for our Father knows everything we lack. One real concern God is also well aware of is our concern for our health. He knows how much money we need in case any of our loved ones get sick. He knows how great our fear is, especially when we don’t have enough savings or insurance for it. In the story of Elijah and the widow, one of our most dreadful fears happened, when a loved ones get sick and we have no money or any kind of means to help them in their sickness: After these things, the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick; and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. She said to Elijah, “What have I to do with you, you man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to memory, and to kill my son!” He said to her, “Give me your son.” He took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into the room where he stayed, and laid him on his own bed. He cried to Yahweh, and said, “Yahweh my God, have you also brought evil on the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?” He stretched himself on the child three times, and cried to Yahweh, and said, “Yahweh my God, please let this child’s soul come into him again.” Yahweh listened to the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the room into the house, and delivered him to his mother; and Elijah said, “Behold, your son lives.” The woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that Yahweh’s word in your mouth is truth.” 1 Kings 17:17-24, WEB Indeed, our TRUE ASSURANCE is in GOD, not in material wealth, not even in the imperfect people we often depend upon! Let’s take a look at what happens when we have all the material wealth we think we need but forget from whom all such gifts came from: The Parable of the Rich Fool He spoke a parable to them, saying, “The ground of a certain rich man produced abundantly. He reasoned within himself, saying, ‘What will I do, because I don’t have room to store my crops?’ He said, ‘This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns, and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. I will tell my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.”’ “But God said to him, ‘You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared—whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” -Luke 12:16-21, WEB Don’t be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. - Luke 12:32, WEB
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 20:03:12 +0000
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