Enjoying His Provision

Everyday with God

Enjoying His Provision
'To be blessed by God is no small thing. Imagine enjoying the favor of the wealthiest person in the world. Yet all of his riches could not buy you good health if you had an incurable disease. Regardless of how wealthy or how powerful someone might be, there's always a boundary beyond which he or she cannot go. But God has no boundaries. With him nothing is impossible or out of his limitless riches. He blesses those who fear him. This fear is deeply intertwined with giving glory to God.
 
As I've studied the fear of God in the book of Psalms, I've noticed how often a blessing is promised to those who fear him. Many passages have to do with enjoying his provision. Examples of his provision are found throughout Scripture.
 
One of the most notable is God's provision for the widow at Zarephat. She was gathering a few sticks to cook one last meal for herself and her son and then die when the Prophet Elijah said to her, "Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me and make something for yourself and your son". This was a bold request to make when a family is sitting down to its last meal. But God's servant tells them to feed him first. Elijah knew God was going to work a miracle to provide for the widow and her son as well as himself. This is exactly what happened. She went away, did as Elijah told her, and there was food for every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.
 
Jesus gave us insight into this when he spoke of it in Luke 4:25-26. "I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for 3 1/2 years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephat." God sent Elijah to the widow's house not just to provide for him, but also to provide for the widow and her son.
 
God could have provided for Elijah in a number of ways. In fact he had done so earlier through some ravens. God didn't need the widow, but the widow needed him. God determined to provide for her need, but he did this as she herself provided for Elijah.
 
Here was a tangible expression of the fear of God. The widow, even though a Gentile and outside God's covenant nation at the time, through faith obeyed God. She believed God's promise and obeyed his commands, both of which were given to her through God's servant. Faith can sometimes be described as "obeying God and trusting him for the results". This is what the widow did, therefore demonstrating her fear of God, and what we can do as well.'*
 
Dear Father, by your grace and power, let me grow in enjoying your provision for all my needs, and let it be to your glory.
 
You have filled the hungry with good things. Luke 15:2
 
Those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Psalm 34:10
 
You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. Psalm 145:16
 
 
*I Give You Glory, O God by Jerry Bridges.
In I Give You Glory, O God, Bridges offers you the best reasons and the best words for bringing honor to your awesome, incomparable God.
In his third powerful volume of the Private Worship Trilogy, this beloved author gives you the encouragement, motivation, and specific guidance you seek for your private, individual worship of God. As a result, you can better see and understand what it really means to glorify God. To fear God. To live as his child. To follow his wisdom day by day. And you can begin to experience the blessings God promises as you truly live for him.
 
Available on Amazon: ISBN 1578566290
Linda Miller | Ministry Development