This blog post is the first in a series on the promises of God. Each blog post will take a dive into Scripture and communicate what each promise of God is and what they mean to us today.
We hear so often that we shouldn’t worry. Worrying is viewed appropriately as a negative thing, especially in Christendom. Why shouldn’t we worry though? Is it simply because worrying is bad? The antidote to worrying is not simply viewing it as wrong and bad. The solution is understanding and believing the promises of God, particularly His promise to be our provider.
Perhaps the most famous Scripture on God’s provision is in Matthew 6. There Jesus says in verses 25-26:
“Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?”
He closes by saying in verses 31-34:
“Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
Here we see God’s promise to supply to His children all of their daily needs. We have reason to trust this promise too. As it says in Philippians 4:19, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus”. God isn’t giving us leftover scraps. He has promised to supply our needs abundantly according to the riches in His infinite glory. We have this promise because of Jesus Christ, who has reconciled us to God.
There is a wider application to this, however, and one that is more important. As humans, we tend to be most concerned about our physical needs, since those are so immediate to us. But God is first and foremost concerned with our spiritual needs, and we can praise him knowing that He has promised to supply this as well. This is the sort of provision we see in Genesis 22. Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac, but God prevented him from doing so and provided a ram to sacrifice instead. This resulted in Abraham calling God his provider. It states in verses 13-14:
“And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.”
Jehovahjireh means “The Lord will provide”. And just like He provided a sacrifice in the place of Isaac, so He has provided a sacrifice in the place of us through Jesus Christ. It is through Him that our spiritual needs are provided for fully and completely.
This isn’t only true in the sense of justification, but also in the sense of sanctification. As it says in 2 Peter 1:3, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue”. All the things we need that pertain to life and godliness are provided to us through God’s divine power. He has not left us without provision. And not only this, but He has not left it up to us to provide for ourselves. We don’t procure God’s divine power; He gives it to us. We don’t even procure our physical needs; He gives them to us. We owe God thanks for everything that we have, both spiritually and physically, because it all came from Him. Take some time to meditate on God our Provider, and thank Him for what He’s done for you today.
Written by NBB Alumnus: Dylan George
