22. My Provider (3)

Names of God Meditations No.22:  My Provider (3)

1 Tim 6:17  “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.”

Recap: This present verse invites us to summarise and expand on two things we’ve considered already. First is God’s daily provision – of a new day (don’t take it for granted!), of this amazing world, and our ability to enjoy it (with five senses). But, second, suggested or implied within this must surely be to have thankful hearts.

Jesus’ Example: Now surely the greatest and most obvious demonstrations of God’s ability to provide must be seen in Jesus’ feeding of the 5000 (Mt 14:13-) and the feeding of the 4000 (Mt 15:29-). There are four commonalities: i) a need (a shortage of food), ii) there was already a very limited and inadequate provision (5 loaves and two fish, 7 loaves and a few fish), iii) it was clearly a teaching situation for the disciples (14:16, 15:32), and iv) there was Jesus! Now here there is a challenge to both the faint-hearted and the cynic. Don’t try and reason or rationalize this away; I’ve come across commentators doing this. What is wrong with the Son of God having divine ability to multiply the earth’s resources, even our resources?  

Testimonies: I remember one occasion, years ago, when I believe it was youth work we were involved in, and I remember a drink container that went on and on filling glasses without us replenishing it. Sorry, it happened! A more dramatic occurrence was when, at the end of a children’s mission we were involved in, on the coast of Wales, we left in the evening to drive over two hundred miles home and partway across Wales our petrol tank was showing completely empty. I think we drove over eighty miles (it may have been more) before we came across a petrol station still open on a motorway. Now if you’re like me, you try to rationalise these things, and so a week later when I was in the middle of the City of London and my petrol tank showed empty again, I thought that maybe it was just reading inaccurately and carried on driving. A mile or so later we ground to a halt and the Lord quietly said, “Son, it was empty before.” There have been other unexplained provisions. When our second son was getting married, we agreed to help pay for the wedding. I remember looking at our accounts and thinking, “Oh dear, these look rather low, I don’t know how we’re going to do this.” Nevertheless we continued to pay out bills throughout the year and the wedding came and went without a financial hitch and when I went to check our accounts, we were well and truly in the black, and I still don’t know how that could have been.

Faith Released: But sometimes when God wants to release money, He simply releases faith in His obedient people. I remember an occasion when we felt it was right to take the entire church away for a weekend retreat at a well-known Christian centre in the UK. It was my wife who had what I am sure was a word of wisdom. The trouble was we were a church with a good number of families on very low incomes and, naturally speaking, there would not have been money to get them all to come. So about two months before we needed the money, we asked them all to pray and ask the Lord how much He would want each of them to give, and if it was nothing, fine. When the offering day came, with no hype just a low key, “Right we’re taking the offering now,” we had all the money and I seem to remember about 10% extra – something about baskets filled afterwards (Mt 14:20, 15:37) – and we were amazed.

Not long after we had a visiting speaker from India with us on a Sunday evening who shared about Christians in India who had had their homes destroyed by persecution, and they wanted help rebuilding, and he named a substantial amount for it. With a very low key, “OK guys next Sunday we’ll take an offering for that,” and so next Sunday, with an equally low key, “OK, we’ll take that offering now,” to our delight we found the offering covered it. Again we were amazed.

I remember a third occasion when in a different but small church, again a not particularly well-off people, a man was sharing of his vision to build a second orphanage in Africa, and the leader caught the Spirit’s direction and simply said, “I believe the Lord wants ten of us to each give £500 to cover the start we’ve just heard of. Would ten people like to put up their hands to cover this?” and to our amazement ten hands went up and the money was released.

And so it could go on. Is it coincidence that my wife has gone shopping on numerous occasions to get something we needed, only to find it was one of the few items with a sale-discounted price tag on it?

God’s kids: We were in a conversation recently with a new believer who felt put out that Christians might ask God to give them such mundane things such as a parking space. Don’t look at it logically, we suggested, just see it as God’s kids who know they are just kids loved by a loving heavenly Father. The same applies to students asking God to help them with their exams. Well, there may be some laziness issues there, but it may just be asking God to help peace to prevail in order that that which has been learnt can be easily recalled. I don’t have a problem with this sort of thing; I just remember what an old friend used to say about prayer, “Well, I don’t know about the logic of these things that some call coincidences. All I know is that when I stop praying, the coincidences stop happening.” Does God provide for His kids? Well, do you provide for yours? And He’s God who owns, as the psalmist said, “the cattle on a thousand hills.” (Psa 50:10) Provision? No problem!