Provision
I never thought much about provision in the biblical sense until my bank account had less than a hundred dollars in it, and I had no choice but to find a better job, rather quickly. Or another time when the electricity and warm water was turned off in our house because we simply didn’t have the money to pay rent. I could sit here and tell you story after story recounting details as if it happened yesterday.
I didn’t have clothes or shoes, and the next day some friends showed up at my house with bags full of thrift shop and Goodwill hand me downs. There was simply no money for me to eat lunch at school, and I didn’t know what to do. This skinny little nobody standing there in her need, I see her quietly enduring. Silently praying to God before she even knew who He was and what He wanted to do in her life.
The next day I went to lunch surprised to find someone had called the school and put twenty five dollars on my account.
Maybe you can recall a time in life when money was tight or the circumstance just weren’t looking good and you knew you needed something right now.
I need Him to come through right in this next moment, this bill must be paid right in the next second, or I don’t know what I’m going to do.
And right in that moment before the next hurried thought can cross your mind, He provides.
The widow at Zarephath is an excellent testament of the Lord’s perfect timing.
1 Kings 17:7-16 reads:
“Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him: ‘Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.’ So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, ‘Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?’ As she was going to get it, he called, 'And bring me, please, a piece of bread.’ ‘As surely as the Lord your God lives,’ she replied, ‘I don’t have any bread — only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it — and die.’ Elijah said to her, ‘Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’ She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.”
Trusting God for our financial means, our health and our desires may seem scary at times. But surrendering it all to Him is one of the best things we can do. He provides and watches over the sparrow, He surely will do the same for us. We only need to trust Him and His timing — His provision is best.