Hello there kindred soul! I’m popping in to rehearse some really good news with you. We belong to the God who supplies His children with plenty! Plenty is the word the Lord has given me to focus on for 2020. Plenty in ’20 has a great ring to it, doesn’t it!?
The last few years have been very different for me financially than the last 20 years. This new season has spurred me on to new growth in my relationship with the Lord as my Provider (Jehovah Jireh). I have been growing in my awareness of what the Bible says about God’s promise to provide and practicing the humility of talking to God about my needs.
Many days the Holy Spirit has reminded me that it is better to “be poor and honest than to be dishonest and rich.” (Proverbs 28:6; also see Proverbs 19:1). It is a profound truth. Having a financial need is not the worst situation to be in according to the Bible!
I wish I could tell you that I have been fearless about God supplying all my needs, especially my financial needs. I carried it like a burden for too many days. Looking back, my worries were mostly self-focused obsessions like failing and how my need might define me in the eyes of others.
The truth is … God has been faithfully supplying my needs and educating me on becoming a good receiver of His provision. He has helped me to take my eyes off myself as my source and look to Him for help and direction. As I have been able to do this more and more, the heaviness has been lifted. Some of my greatest joys have been the result of His provision miraculously being delivered to me through generous members of the body of Christ.
My Wonderful Counselor began to make it clear that I needed a fresh dose of hope — which I could not muster on my own. Praying in agreement with God’s Word about my finances and experiencing unexpected miracles have plugged the hole in my hope bucket. I pray that is what this post does for you whether you are praying about your finances or another area where you are experiencing a need.
Promises of Plenty
Here are a few of the many Bible verses that reveal God’s character as our Provider of plenty. (italics included by me for emphasis)
Psalm 34:9 – 10: O fear the Lord, you His saints [revere and worship Him]! For there is no want to those who truly revere and worship Him with godly fear. The young lions lack food and suffer hunger, but they who seek (inquire of and require) the Lord [by right of their need and on the authority of His Word], none of them shall lack any beneficial thing.
Romans 8:32: He who did not withhold or spare [even] His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also with Him freely and graciously give us all [other] things?
Psalm 23:1: The Lord is my Shepherd [to feed, guide, and shield me], I shall not lack.
You will notice that in Psalm 34, those who “truly revere and worship Him with godly fear” are the ones who are not lacking. I believe Romans 8 is speaking to those who are alive “in Christ” the righteous One. In Psalm 23, we have the testimony of one who is relying on the Lord as a shepherd, so we can assume righteousness is involved.
Matthew 6:33: Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. I believe living generously (tithing, giving offerings, helping others) and forgiving people are elemental to Kingdom living.
Each time I learn and apply kingdom living principles in my life, I feel more alive and less burdened. Hallelujah!
Faith in God as Provider leads us to ask Him for help. Faith in Jesus as the Truth and the Way leads us to walk in the obedience of giving. God will never fail to give back to the giver (Luke 6:38). We may wait for the provision, but we can trust it is coming, because He is faithful to 1000 generations!
Deuteronomy 7:9: Understand, therefore, that the LORD your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.
Is Perfection Required?
Is God only going to bless the perfect people? Hebrews 11:6 tells us we must believe He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. He rewards those who seek Him for wisdom, mercy, strength, money, and all of His unlimited resources.
He is patient with my mis-steps and faithful to His Word to provide for me, His daughter. The heroes of the faith listed in Hebrews 11 were not perfect people who never missed God. He knew their hearts. They were diligently seeking to please Him. His promise to be merciful was a part of their relationship. And it is a part of ours.
Jesus’ perfection is what God looks at when He sees believers. Jesus stood in our place as a substitute for the debt we owed for our sins. Then Jesus chose to share His well earned right standing with God with us! We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:21)! This is a truth I am rehearsing often, because I wrestle with religious “must measure up” thinking. Do you?
Ultimately, the provision we receive from the Lord is for the glory of His great name. He does not lie and He does not fail to fulfill His Word. So we should not fail to ask for His help and expect to receive it. Sometimes we are lacking because we haven’t asked, or we’ve asked with wrong motives (James 4:2-3).
Last week, I taught on this His faithfulness to provide plenty giving examples from the Old and New Testaments. I also shared the wonderful testimony of a dear friend as well as my own. You can find the video of the teaching and testimony here in our Fresh Strength Facebook group.
Bible Study Starts January 22
We are beginning our women’s online Bible Study on The Power of Covenant Prayer on Wednesday January 22nd. This is an excellent study. If you want to join us, be sure you sign up here to receive the emails with the Bible study questions and announcements. You will also need to join the Fresh Strength Facebook Group where the teaching videos will be. The paper back book seems to be out of stock on Amazon and Christianbook.com. You can purchase the Kindle or PDF of the book in time for the study here: Kindle, ebook, PDF.
May the Lord who sees and provides reveal His faithfulness to you in profound ways! Let it be so, in Jesus’ name. Amen