Before we get to today’s article, I just want to mention that am writing from the perspective of a man that has experienced many of the challenges of which I write…. and those spiritual battles continue daily. The articles are implications of what it means to obey the commandment to raise your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. They require some reflection and are particularly for Christians who, as Peter would say, are diligently seeking to confirm their calling and are making every effort to supplement their faith. Said more succinctly, serious Christians. If you know other believers who desire to walk more faithfully with the Lord, please forward an article to them and tell them to sign up for future articles. Thanks so much! https://www.cherishephesians64.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Will20He20Provide_.mp3 The Lord Has Promised To Meet All Of My Needs, But It Seems He Is Not Doing It. I believe it would be fair to say that all Christians experience times in their life when they need the Lord to provide something, and He does not. If we choose to give very little thought to why this happens, we can quickly arrive at the flimsy conclusion that God is not trustworthy. Maybe we don’t say it out loud but there’s something inside of us that imperceptibly registers thoughts of doubt in the veracity of God. What I would like to do through this article is to assure you by using the scriptures that God is not only trustworthy, but His plan is gloriously brilliant for his children. First, let me introduce several examples of Christians who are praying for God to fulfill a need: A young man has a desire to have his working wife quit her job and stay home so they can begin to raise a family. However, he must find a way to double his current salary if that is going to happen. He has been praying that God will provide that need for him, but nothing is happening. A husband and wife yearn to have children, but it has now been several years of trying and all they have is what appears to be unanswered prayers and buckets of tears. A pastor has been praying for years that God would reduce the strife in his church by convicting many in his congregation of their sin and leading them to repentance. After years of prayer, things have only marginally improved and he’s now thinking that maybe it’s time to move on. I could literally make up another 100 examples, but they are not needed to make the point. Many Christians find themselves in similar situations where they are praying for God to act, and it seems that their prayers aren’t even being heard. So, let’s go to scripture to begin to work through this challenging question. First up is Matthew 6:25-30: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” The key takeaways here are the absolute sovereignty of God over all things, the knowledge that God has regarding our needs, the command to seek God and His righteousness in your life, and the promise that all of your needs will be provided for. And here we have to ask the question, “do the things that I determined to be my needs correlate with the things that God has determined to be my needs?” Clearly, there is room for disagreement between the Christian and the Lord, so there may be situations where the needs we’re praying for are not the same as what the Lord’s view of what we need. We have to remember, as the passage illustrates, our value in the eyes of the Lord is greater than we can even imagine, and He will never provide something for us that we don’t truly need. If we were honest, we would admit that many of the things that we think we need in this life would simply not hold muster In light of what God’s word tells us about loving the world. James is a help in thinking this through as well. In 4:2-3 he says, “You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” But wait you say, the examples that you gave above seems to be the kinds of needs or desires that would be pleasing to God. Yes, I agree. However, there is something much greater going on here than what we can understand with our finite minds, and that involves another promise the Lord has made. We can find it in Romans chapter 8:29: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” This is, without exception, God’s revealed plan for every Christian. He is working in our lives to change us so we may behave and think more like Jesus Christ. Ultimately, he is preparing us for heaven. Is this promise more important than the promise to provide our needs? Well, it certainly isn’t more important in the context of deciding which promise kept would prove His faithfulness more than the other. He cannot be unfaithful to either promise, but he must work all things together for our good and his glory. So, let’s look to scripture again to learn how He makes us more like Christ. The best place to look for the answer is to examine the life of our Lord and King Himself. As we begin to study His life, we have to remember that the Bible teaches that Jesus was fully God and fully man and because He was fully man, He went through his life learning the things necessary to reflect His Father in heaven to the watching world. In an amazing passage from Hebrews 5:7-8, the Bible says, “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” Of all of the things that we know from scripture, this one truth may be the most unpleasant. This passage is not an isolated passage about Jesus’ sufferings. His life was a life of many sorrows. Nor are passages hard to find about the suffering the believer faces during his time here on earth. And why? Because we don’t learn to be more obedient to God, to trust Him more, and to love Him more, during the times things are going well. When times are going well, we are prone to think of Him less, depend on Him less, and strive less in our battle to walk worthy of His calling. In a word, we succumb to our flesh. However, when we are struggling or suffering in some way, we go to Him and learn more of His grace, mercy, and love. Truly, there is nothing greater than suffering in its number or magnitude that is effective in making us more like Christ, and that is greater need than any temporal earthly need. What does that suffering look like? Well, it can be anything the Lord knows is best for our life at any particular time. Can it be withholding our need for a larger salary even if it is for a God honoring cause? Yes. Can it be withholding one of His great gifts, the gift of children? Yes, if He thinks we will learn more by having to wait. Can it be withholding wisdom, so we have to grind a situation out for a longer period of time, causing us to depend on Christ’s grace more deeply? Yes. And we should understand, wisdom does not come through lightning bolts of information but through the experiences of life overlaid by the truth of scripture. This requires a constant feeding of the heart and mind on the word of God. And thinking more broadly, can our waiting or suffering in situations be used for God’s purposes than just us? Yes. Both believers and unbelievers are watching us all the time. God uses our response to difficult situations to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ and to draw unbelievers to him who wonder what it is in the Christian that makes him smile even in the face of adversity. And what about the experience itself and how God may use that in the Christian’s ministry to someone else facing a similar situation? Listen to 2 Corinthians 2:3-6: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.” So, what should we do when it seems God is not providing? Just a few things to think about: Always be saturating your mind with the Bible. Over time you will find yourself more concerned about His kingdom and His glory than anything else you need. Furthermore, God will use the words that He has planted in your heart to guide you through any sinful doubts about His faithfulness. Check the desires of your heart. Can you say that you are seeking to build His kingdom and
