Tag: provision

He always provides

“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)

I believe that we are in a season where God is teaching us to have our needs met in Him and through Him.

It’s much like little children. Having their needs met has nothing to do with who they are, but EVERYTHING to do with who they belong to.

Likewise, in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus is reported to have said this while ministering to people during His time on earth,

“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)

The mysteries and the benefits of the Kingdom of Heaven are best experienced when we remain like little children before the Lord.

Little children trust.

Still unmarred by the pain and trauma of life, little children are quite innocent. So they find it easy to trust.

They don’t doubt and question everything like we do. They are honest and vulnerable. They don’t pretend and find themselves at ease when safely and closely cradled.

Our Heavenly Father calls us to be just like that. Christ Jesus reconciles us to the Father Heart of God, and restores our child like innocence once we enter into a relationship with Him.

He is completely faithful and absolutely trustworthy. He is the best illustration of a Perfect Father. He loves us with a Perfect Love – a Love so complete that it can never be earned or deserved, but only received like a little child by a child of God who belongs to the Kingdom of Heaven.

It’s giving into this Father-child relationship that restores our soul and our lives. It’s being willing to receive His Love and His Promises with unrestrained delight and child like wonder that heals us. It’s laying our worries and insecurities at the feet of Jesus, and replacing what we don’t know about the future with the Truth of what we DO KNOW about God that redeems us.

Every single time.

Because He always comes through.

Every single time.

Whatever I have ever needed, His Hands have always faithfully provided. He hasn’t failed me yet, and He won’t start now because He never changes.

He is a Father – a Perfect Father.

And I take heart in knowing that as we too faithfully surrender to the process that He has for us where we allow ourselves to be loved, taught and provided for by Him, that we will be better prepared to handle seasons where the Lord brings to us our promised inheritance.

Times and seasons change as they belong to a never changing God.

But the degree to which we change and are authentically transformed is the degree to which we can fully step into our inheritance at the appointed time.

So I’m learning to live like a much loved child of God who delightfully receives everything that her Father wants to give her. I’m learning to let go and trust that He has got my back covered. I’m learning to understand that I don’t need to understand everything in order to walk with Someone who knows the end from the beginning. I’m learning to be loved by Him and to love in response.

I’m learning that He is Faithful and therefore, I can have faith that this is not the end of my story.

Times and seasons change, but I’m learning to acknowledge that as I let Him guide and provide in the season I’m currently in, I will have the spiritual muscles I need in the Promised Land.

Because I will know who my Father is and the family I come from.

Simply because it has nothing to do with me, but everything to do with who I belong to.

And I’m suspecting that the same holds true for you.

Believe

“‘More’ is never enough, but ‘less’ in the anointed hands of Jesus will always be more than enough.”

In my experience thus far, I’ve noticed that a deceptive snare of the enemy that we, if not careful, can easily fall into, is a fundamental feeling that says,

“Not enough.”

We can feel, from time to time, that if only we had more finances, resources, skillsets or connections that we could then find the rest, satisfaction and solace we need. We tend to strive to make things happen in our own strength and inevitably end up feeling empty and exhausted. While the list of our aspirations seems unending, the state of our inner man seems to be dwindling. We may try to receive affirmation and validation from things that are external in the vain hope that it may serve to satisfy a need that in reality is perhaps embedded in a much deeper root than what meets the eye.

I’m drawn back, as I write, to the Garden of Eden. The crafty serpent slithered over to Eve and tempted her to not only doubt the wisdom of what God had said to Adam and her, but also undermined their identity as image bearers of God. Adam and Eve, as the first beings to be created, were by divine design made in the image of God. They bore the likeness of God. So isn’t it surprising to note how the serpent tricks Eve into believing the lie that if she would eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then her eyes would be opened and she would be, ‘like God?’

She already was. And so was Adam.

I don’t think the serpent has ceased ever since. He continues to plague us with feelings of insecurity and shame based thinking that is rooted in an all pervasive sense that we are not enough or that we do not have enough. His malicious lies, if believed, will always land us on a performance treadmill where we go the distance to prove things that need no proving at all. God’s Word has the final authority and it says that we are more than conquerors through Christ who loves us. We are children of God that are in a covenant relationship with Christ where no matter how many promises God has made, they are ALL, in Christ Jesus,

“Yes and Amen.”

God loves us just as we are. We have nothing to prove to Someone who died for us when we were yet dead in our transgressions. We were His enemies when Christ took the Cross to reconcile us to the Perfect Love of a most extravagant Father. He loved us at our worst, and the Good News is that our best won’t move Him either. Performance was nailed to the Cross at Calvary in exchange for an authentic relationship with Father God. There is no striving in His Grace, and as children that dine full at the Table of God’s Love and Truth, we can rest in Christ righteousness, leaving our own at the feet of Jesus.

God is Faithful. He keeps the promises He makes and it is in His nature to provide. One of my favourite Bible verses in this season we find ourselves in is,

“In vain you rise early

    and stay up late,

toiling for food to eat—

    for he grants sleep to those he loves.” (Psalm 127:2)

An implication of the last verse here is that He provides for us even when we sleep. This Truth goes to reveal the perfect heart of our Heavenly Father. It is in His Nature to provide for His Children, and He doesn’t change. He is a sure hope and a firm foundation that we can safely stake our lives on. Nations will rise and fall, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.

Not only are we more than enough as image bearers and much loved children of God, the Truth is that because of our placement in Christ, we get to operate FROM victory, peace and rest; never towards it. We never have to fast forward or strive forward to achieve something that carries an elusive appeal of giving us that which ONLY and ONLY the love of God can.

Whether it’s Identity, worth and value. Whether it’s provision, hope and security.

It’s all found in His Love, His Truth and His Promises. The world may crumble and quake, but we get to stand on the Rock whose Name is Jesus. He fights for us FROM victory because He stands Undefeated. Therefore, as children that belong to Him, we can rest. We can have true peace and bask in the joy our hope inspires. We can learn to trust that His kingdom remains unshaken and we are privileged to be a tiny yet potently significant part of it. We can know deep down in our souls that we are enough and though we may not possess much, the Truth that sets us free is that our God is still a miracle working God and in the anointed hands of Jesus, our two fish and five loaves of bread will not only be enough, but in fact, more than enough.

I recall that all Jesus ever required of us was to believe.