This weekend Mike and I went to Knott's Island with some friends. We rode around in the boat looking for the wild horses. It was amazing seeing them living on an island. My great uncle has a horse farm and I am used to people taking care of the horses, feeding them and giving them shelter. I thought of God's provision. These horses live off of the land and have no "barns". God provides trees and woods to shelter them. The Lord provides a very specialized diet of sea oats, coarse grasses, acorns, persimmons, and other native vegetation for them to eat. He even provides them relief to the heat as we saw them swimming across a canal.
I was reminded of my husband, Mike, when he lost a sale at work. He learned to say, "I am not worried about that doctor not buying - he is not my provider, God is." That helped ease the sting. As I watched those horses this weekend I thought of Matthew 6: 26, "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" That night as I lay in bed I thought, again, of how God told the Israelites not to store up food. He wanted them to rely on Him to provide. Numbers 11: 9, "When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down." Our God can do anything. Can you imagine it raining manna? We put God in a box and forget He is our Provider who can do anything! I mean I would have thought He would take your hunger pangs away and they would not be hungry. But, no, He rained food down!
God does not always provide in the way we think. Ephesians 3; 20, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us..."
Abraham knew what it was like to trust God to provide. Being obedient, he took his son, Isaac, up the mountain to sacrifice him, trusting that God would provide a substitute. He was getting ready to sacrifice his only son when an angel called out for him to stop. In the bush, nearby, was a ram that Abraham sacrificed instead of his son. I cannot imagine the panic Abraham had as the clock ticked. But just in time God provided another option. Genesis 22: 14, "So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide..."
Proverbs 3: 5, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding..." I choose to trust that God will provide during these times of uncertainty. I am blessed to have food in my pantry and freezer but everyone does not and cannot. I take comfort in Philippians 4: 19, "And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus." When we trust God with our finances, our emotions and our spiritual life, He always provides because that is Who He is, our Provider!