God is Our Provider
Once I passed the 50 years of age mark, I began to have a better ability to look back over my life and see all the times when God provided for me. So many times, it seemed like expenses threatened to overwhelm us – a car would require expensive repairs, a pipe burst in our kitchen floor, medical expenses exceeded our means, mold was showing up on a wall from a leak we didn’t know about, and more.
My boys were young, I was working more on a part-time basis so I could help to homeschool our boys and make runs to soccer games and other events. We did not have disposable income. And yet, God provided through it all. I know that now. Hindsight is a gift to help us lean into trusting God more and more with our future.
This past year (2023) was a year full of scary health crises for my husband and for myself. God truly began to show me more and more Bible passages about His provision out of His sweet and loving knowledge of my needs. God knew that it was time for me to gain a deeper understanding about what His provision is all about. He provides for us spiritually, emotionally, physically, and materially.
God provides for us in the most important way – spiritually. He provided Jesus Christ, His Son, to make the Way for our spirit to come alive and become indwelt by God’s Holy Spirit. In Isaiah 53:5-6, the Prophet Isaiah foretold, by the Holy Spirit, God’s plan to send His Son, Jesus Christ, to provide salvation for mankind through His sacrificial death and resurrection. It says, “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
Through the Holy Spirit, all our spiritual needs are met. God provides ongoing guidance, wisdom, sanctification, and growth for all who believe in Jesus Christ. John 16:13 says, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”
The Holy Spirit provides intercession for us as seen in Romans 8:26. “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”
Jesus tells us this in John 14:16, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”
God also provides for us materially during this earthly life. One of my favorite verses is found in Philippians 4:19. It says, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
This passage in Matthew 6:25-33 is a passage that can calm our anxiety about our earthly needs. It says,
“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
I could go on and on listing Bible verses and entire passages that show us all the ways God provides for us, but suffice it to say, He provides everything and everyone in our lives. Salvation, guidance, wisdom, food, clothing, shelter, family, friends, and even our very breath. Take some time to let these truths sink in and feel your soul begin to relax. Trust that God will provide a way through whatever you are experiencing.