The God Who Provides

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

The Israelites had just been freed from Egypt in a miraculous act of deliverance, but were they happy? No they were not. They moaned and grumbled and gripped about their situation.

I doubt that there are many things that make us human beings moan as much as when we are thirsty and hungry; and this was the case with the Israelites:

They had travelled for 3 days in the desert without finding water and ‘so the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”’ (Exodus 15:24)

Then just a little while later they were hungry and said to Moses “you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” (Exodus 16:3).

Perhaps you are in need of something right now; it might be something as basic as putting food and drink on the table, if so take it to the Lord in prayer, because the lesson from these two stories is that God does provide for his people, even when they grumble.

In Exodus 15:25 we read, Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink. And in chapter 16 we see that The LORD said to Moses, “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.’” (V.11-12)

God provided for his people the exact thing they needed.

If we take our needs to God he is faithful to provide, and as he does it strengthens our trust in him. As the Exodus account says, ‘Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.’

But God’s provision to us isn’t just to satisfy us; it’s also to equip up us so that we can be used by God to provide for others.

In Matthew 25 Jesus commends his sheep for what?

Here is part of what he said, ‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink…’ (V.35).

When they asked, ‘when did we ever do this for you?’ Jesus replied, ‘whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’ (V.40).

God still provides today; the question is ‘as God provides for us will we allow him to provide through us?’

I pray that our attitude will be similar to that of Isaiah, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8), and as we go we are truly serving Jesus.

Have a good week providing for others,