“My God shall supply
for all our needs according to His riches in glory”. (Phil. 4:19).
Hey Gang: This
morning I would like that you read about Elijah under a Juniper Tree (I Kings 9:1-9).
One might think that God had good reason to
turn his back on His prophet, just as one might think He would turn His back on
us for transgressions and failures.
Isn’t it neat to know we serve a forgiving God who is very patient with
His sheep? Remember Elijah had cut and run when threatened by Jezebel.
We find him asleep when an angel touched him and told him
"arise and eat". God had
provided bread, cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. Did he get the message? Not really, he laid down and went back to
sleep. Once again the angel said, “Arise
and eat, you have a long journey ahead.”
Recently, our Sunday School lesson centered on the blessings
that God wants to give to us but we often fail to recognize or put into practice. In our power verse for today, Paul gives us
the assurance that "God will supply
all of our needs according to His riches in glory”. We tend to look at that verse in light of
material things, but I believe Paul’s meaning goes much deeper; in reality, God wants to care for “ALL” of
our needs.
Let me put some meat around that promise from Abba
Father. In the early days of the Village
I had two concerns that dogged me constantly; the first, that God would give us
the wisdom, strength and most of all patience to make sure each youngster under
our care was experiencing life changing care; the second, where were we going
to get enough money to get through another day.
Up to this point, I believed every promise in the Bible but
had not yet come to the compulsion stage that every promise was literal and
unchanging. A dear saintly lady by the
name of Jeanette taught me that if the Word said Jonah ate the whale instead of
being eaten by the whale, she would take it to the bank.
Early that first year, I had purchased the winter gear for
the coming fuzzy white stuff season and stuck the invoice in a safe place where
I promptly forgot all about it. And then,
one day, the rubber-hit-the road. The
mail arrived and being the pessimist, I confess I sometimes am, I always opened
the bills first and as the you probably guessed, the bill ($187,00) for the
clothing had finally arrived.
Now, I confess lads and lassies, the last thing on my mind
at that moment was "My God shall". I calmly laid the bill on the desk, picked up
a towel and dried my perspiration covered face and went about the rest of the
chores that had to be done.
Later that afternoon I returned to the office and opened the
rest of the mail. The last piece was
from a ladies group in Farwell, Michigan.
I had the privilege of enjoying a pot luck with them months before and
bringing them up to speed in what was happening at the Village. And then came the 'wower' of the day, enclosed was a check for $187.00
that they raised in a recent bake sale!
Not a penny more but not a penny less either, God had supplied our
needs.
Sooooo my young friends, I got a little off the beaten path
but my message for you today, based on this old man's experiences is two-fold:
first every word of the Bible needs to be taken literally. Don't try and put words into God's mouth; and
second, when God calls you to do something, let Him worry about the provisions
and where the next buck is coming from.
He does not call us to do something for Him without giving us all we
need to complete the task (Hebrews 13:21).
Blessings,
Gramps
No comments:
Post a Comment