A Father Who Provides
Galatians 4:
4 But when the right time came, the time God decided on, he sent his Son, born of a woman, born as a Jew,
5 to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law so that he could adopt us as his very own sons.
6 And because we are his sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, so now we can rightly speak of God as our dear Father. (Living Bible)
One of the biggest problems we human beings face, is that we view God our Father as having the same strengths and weaknesses as our own earthly father.
That is because a father is meant to reflect the fatherhood of God to his children.
That's an awesome responsibility, which needs the anointing of the Holy Spirit to accomplish.
So what kind of father is God? He is the Father who provides for His children.
Matthew 7:
9 If a child asks his father for a loaf of bread, will he be given a stone instead?
10 If he asks for fish, will he be given a poisonous snake? Of course not!
11 And if you hardhearted, sinful men know how to give good gifts to your children,
won't your Father in heaven even more certainly give good gifts to those who ask him for them? (Living Bible)
There are many people reading this who don't recognise the kind of father described by the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter 7.
That is because their experience of father is that "my father does not provide for me". Or maybe their experience is that "my father only gives the bare minimum. If I ask for anything extra, he doesn't provide that".
It is difficult for people who have not had the experience of an earthly father providing for them generously, to believe that our heavenly Father will keep this promise.
The inability to trust our heavenly Father as a generous provider, eats away at our faith like a cancer. The result is that we don't ask Him to provide for us and so we may miss out on having our needs met, and then in our heart we may secretly blame God for our lacks.
With this mind-set, we struggle to believe it when we read Psalm 23:
1. Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything I need. (Living Bible)
And it may be difficult for us to pray Matthew 6:
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
Notice that our Father in heaven promises to provide what we NEED, not necessarily what we WANT.
There is a difference, as seen in this incident in the life of the Prophet Elijah: 1 Kings 17:
2 Then the Lord said to Elijah,
3 "Go to the east and hide by Cherith Brook at a place east of where it enters the Jordan River.
4 Drink from the brook and eat what the ravens bring you, for I have commanded them to feed you."
5 So he did as the Lord had told him to and camped beside the brook.
6 The ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he drank from the brook.
7 But after awhile the brook dried up, for there was no rainfall anywhere in the land.
8 Then the Lord said to him, "Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. There is a widow there who will feed you. I have given her my instructions."
10 So he went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the gates of the city he saw a widow gathering sticks; and he asked her for a cup of water.
11 As she was going to get it, he called to her, "Bring me a bite of bread too."
12 But she said, "I swear by the Lord your God that I haven't a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jar. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I must die of starvation."
13 But Elijah said to her, "Don't be afraid! Go ahead and cook that 'last meal,' but bake me a little loaf of bread first; and afterwards there will still be enough food for you and your son.
14 For the Lord God of Israel says that there will always be plenty of flour and oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!"
15 So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her son continued to eat from her supply of flour and oil as long as it was needed.
16 For no matter how much they used, there was always plenty left in the containers, just as the Lord had promised through Elijah! (Living Bible)
In a time of famine and recession, the Prophet Elijah always had enough to keep him alive - but no more than that!
However, when we consider that people in the community may have been dying of starvation, we realise that God provided for Elijah most generously.
Today is the day to root out this distrust of our heavenly Father, and decide instead to believe that He will provide for my needs when I tell Him about them.
Prayer:
Loving heavenly Father,
I ask that You forgive me for blaming You when I went without in the past.
Forgive me for expecting You to provide for me when I never even told You my needs and requested Your help.
Forgive me for demanding things I simply wanted from You, even though had so generously supplied all my needs.
Today I refuse out of my heart, every time I have blamed You for things that weren't Your fault at all.
Thank You for the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that cleanses me from all sin.
Now Father, I set my heart, soul, mind and strength to believe what You promise me.
I will tell You every day what my needs are and believe that You will supply them.
I trust You, because You are my Lord and my God and most of all,
You are my provider.
Lord Jesus Christ, thank You for making all this possible for me.
I praise You today, Lord Jesus. Amen.
