Do you ever get angry because of lack of resources? Maybe you need food and your pantry is bare? Maybe the bills in the mailbox add up to more than the paycheck? Maybe you really want a babysitter for New Years Eve but already know you are going to have to ask the babysitter to hold the check? Maybe your roof leaks and you have no way to repair it? Maybe you are sad and your spouse and kids can not cheer you up?
Wait patiently, my friend, for the Lord. He is mighty to save. He takes great delight in you.
Lamentations 3:22-26 “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in Him.’ The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”
He has never failed us. Not once. The solutions I dream up in my head are not always the right ones. His ways are so much better than my ways. He always provides just what is needed at the proper time. Maybe what we think we need, we really do not need. Maybe some of our needs are really wants, not needs. In the painful waiting, He is refining us.
All I know is we can trust Him, He is faithful and He will never leave us or forsake us.
Do you wait quietly? Sometimes I don’t. I wait with begging, fretting, and all the millions of what if’s. All that is sin. He longs for us to trust Him, even in the darkest hour, when it seems the bleakest and the most impossible.
He really can be trusted. Even the best intentions and the most noble of men can not always be trusted. Man/woman forgets. Man/woman gets sick. Man/woman has to work late. Man/woman makes wrong choices. Man/woman oversleeps. Man/woman gets in a bad mood. Man/woman takes things personally. Man/woman sometimes speaks before thinking. Man/woman can never be perfect. Yet, God is consistent. He never slumbers or sleeps. He is always there. He knows everything we need before we even ask. He forgives. He waits patiently for us. His love endures forever.
God has taught me something cool that use to make me so angry and annoyed. It is just like Him to change our perspectives on things and help us understand. Have you ever gotten a check in the mail you did not expect, maybe a rebate from something or a refund for some overpayment? In the past, I use to think I was entitled to that money. It was “free” money to spend on a whim. But, then something would always happen…a car repair, a doctor visit, etc that would demand that money. It would make me feel slighted, cheated, mad.
One day, God opened my eyes to the truth of the “free” money…it was in His plan for our provision all along. He knew the stressful expense was coming and He was providing the “surprise” to cover us. He knew we would be short so we received birthday money early to make our bills. He knew our car insurance bill would catch us by surprise and so he provided the overpayment refund from our water bill. And on and on it goes. It has happened so many times over the last 15 years and I finally get it.
He knows what we need before we ask. He will provide at the proper time. We must work with all our heart as working for the Lord and not for men and trust Him for the rest.
Sometimes, He shows us we have to sacrifice things too. We think we need cable, but we do not so we may have to cancel it. We think we need to go out to eat, but we realize we do not have enough money so we have to have willpower and not go. We really want to go to the movies, but we realize it is not reasonable to spend over $50 to go to a theater when we can rent a RedBox for $1.00. On and on the lessons go.
When we quit panicing about our provision and ask Him to show us, He will make it simple. He will show us what to cut to stretch our resources. He will provide firewood from someone else’s trash pile, He will pass down clothing from another friend’s child, He will teach us how to enjoy leftovers and not waste what He has so richly provided.
Remembering God is Provider and not ourselves, our spouses, our employers or our friends liberates us. He blesses us. He teaches us how to be faithful to Him in the little things. He teaches us to be resourceful. He stretches us to see things in a new way. He teaches us to accept the surprise gifts as His provision for the unexpected expenses and to be grateful, not mad. He helps us understand needs versus wants. He imparts self-discipline into our lives. He helps us say no to immediate gratification for what is best. He provides. And through this journey, He changes us.
Colossians 3:15 “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.”