God provides. He provides the big things. He provided a way to heaven through His Son Jesus Christ for all who would believe. He provides the Holy Spirit to indwell us and help us resist sin. He provides good gifts of the spirit to edify the body and grow in faith. He provides patience in between the time we sin and fail to repent. He provides the earth to live on.
He also provides the lesser things but which are still important, like food and clothing. He said, "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?" (Matthew 6:26)
Even during the Exodus when the Israelites were marching hither and yon for 40 years, His observance of each person was so detailed, He saw to it that their clothes didn't even wear out and their feet didn't swell or get blisters! (Deuteronomy 8:4).
I had three needs this week. I am extremely frugal with my supply and I dearly attempt to shepherd it well so that the Lord would be pleased. I have little to none left over for personal things.
Earlier this week I said "I need a frame to put this sketch in." A dear friend had sketched for me a biblical scene of the lion and the lamb. It is a fitting artistic rendering because I have an issue with pictures of Jesus. I wanted to put it into a frame but I didn't have any.
Later in the week I said, I am getting low on tee shirts. The weather is warming up and over the winter I'd forgotten I had gotten low on shirts. You know how they get stained or worn or just to small. (That blasted dryer shrinks 'em! ;) I wear them under other shirts in ensuring modesty. Necklines these days are atrociously low. So I wear smaller tee shirts underneath.
Yesterday I said "I need some books..." I have had opportunity to obtain some theological books, and I study those. But the books I meant are the kind where you go outside onto the patio and read a summer potboiler to unwind in the afternoon. I don't like to watch television because the shows are so terrible and even if a show is clean, the ads are awful. I've had a hard time finding clean, good, interesting movies on Netflix. A quiet evening reading is what I had been longing for but haven't had because I've read all my books on the shelf.
So the other day I receive a Facebook message from a local artist. She said "Hey, I still have your artwork here, can you come pick it up?"
Six years ago I participated in a gallery show, and some of my art work was hung. I had forgotten ALL about the pieces I had installed there. I went to pick up the things and there were half a dozen pieces of large and small size, including some I will use for re-framing the piece my friend gave me. Six years is a long time and out of the blue the message came- and suddenly there are frames I can re-use. Wow. Six years.
The gallery was also holding an indoor yard sale, something I'd never have known since I don't travel to that side of town, ever. At the sale there were paperback books for a quarter. I bought three. And also there were tee shirts, $1 each. I bought four.
So for five dollars I had all three needs met.
I am not saying God is a genie who responds to wishes, He doesn't. He is the sovereign and holy God who does what He wills. I didn't "sow a seed" like Jentezen Franklin says to do. I hadn't 'expected' him to 'do great things' in my life as Joyce Meyer tells her audiences. I did not "declare" things to come to pass as Joel Osteen teaches.
I pray to the Lord, read His word, worship Him corporately and privately. I talk to Him, sing to Him, think about Him, thank him, and follow Him. I obey Him too. I have a living and active relationship with Him, and I think it's a close one, because after all, He is my everything.
Now, prayer is an obedient act of dependence on God. Therefore I pray for the big things, salvation, intercession, repentance for others and forgiveness for myself. I pray for the little things too. Didn't He not say "pray in this way"..."Give us this day our daily bread"? (Luke 11:3). The things I'd needed were small needs, and not completely necessary to my life or well-being, but they are in a way part of my daily bread- clean entertainment that's God-honoring, clothing that helps me remain dressed modestly, and framing a gift an artist had drawn that is not an idol but a representation of Him as Lamb of God and Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Bread isn't just food but things that help us in our daily needs.
God does manage provision in our lives down to smallest of details. The Lord provides. After all, He kept the clothing of 3 million Jews from wearing out, for 40 years. His eye was on the threads and straps and sandals of each person! He is a great and mighty God, but He is also our Father. My dad, Abba!
Jesus called God 'Abba'-
"Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." (Mark 14:36)
The Holy Spirit cries out to God as Abba-
"Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." (Galatians 4:6)
We who are His children by adoption call out Abba, too!
"For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15)
