All I have needed your hand hath provided

For several days God has been speaking to me about his faithfulness and prodding me to listen to the old hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness.  Although I listened, I did not hear. Eventually I was concentrating enough to hear All I have need thy hand hath provided which sank into my brain and spirit. 

So often our upbringing and past circumstances can continue to negatively affect us years later even after we have been born again into our new life in Christ. I was watching an early episode of Call the Midwife and an elderly brother and sister could never really shake off their workhouse upbringing.  For the Israelites, God may have brought them out from slavery in Egypt in one night but it took much longer to get Egypt out of the Israelites. For years they continued to behave like slaves.

When my husband and I became Christians over 30 years ago, we were in debt and very poor at money management.  Over the years we learned to be better stewards and givers of the money we had but we always seemed to be bumping along the bottom of the pond. We had enough – just. Gradually as we learned to trust God more and more, things continued to improve.

However a few weeks ago, I realised that my old fears of never having enough were still lurking in my heart. In a multi storey car park, I reversed our car into a large pillar. I just hadn’t been looking carefully enough.  There was a big dent on the back bumper and the rear light fixing was smashed. I was distraught.  I knew we could probably afford to have the car repaired but it was just such a waste. Why should my husband or God have to pay for my carelessness?

I kept confessing that God was our provider and even though I now know all will be well and we wont go into debt over this, God wanted to deal with my deep seated fear of not having enough.  Finally the truth of All I have need thy hand hath provided hit home.

God does not want to provide just those things necessary for life nor even for those ‘extras’ that his grace and kindness want to bless us with. He is our provider for everything – including repairs to our car due my lack of attention. I can trust God’s provision for everything because it all comes from him in the first place. As the Matt Redman song says:

We have nothing to give that did not first come from your heart

We have nothing to offer you that you did not provide

Every good, prefect gift comes from your kind and gracious heart

And all we do is give back to you what always has been yours.

Everything comes from God and what we do is spend it, use it or give it. God is not like an expenses account that will cover some things but not others.  God covers it all – the good things, the bad things and the stupid things.  He will constantly help us be better stewards because he can then trust us with more which will bless us and others. That has been our experience but God knew that fear still lay hidden in my heart.

As Joyce Meyer said Fear always tells you what you’re not, what you don’t have, what you can’t do, and what you never will be. God wants us free from all fear so we are free to love and free to give.  It may take a pillar in a car park but God is constantly working to liberate us from the fears of our past.  

God our wonderful provider

‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 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?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

‘And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6: 25 – 33

When our sons were younger, they used to burst in through the front door after school and cry, ‘Feed me!’ They then rushed to the fridge and cupboard to rootle around till they found what they wanted to eat and drink.

There was no hanging back cautiously to see if it was alright to come into the house or to raid the fridge. They didn't beg or plead with me. This was their home, I was their mother and therefore it was perfectly acceptable to expect to be fed without any begging or argument. 

Not only so but provision was assured. Apart from the odd day when I may not have been shopping, it was expected that food would be on hand.  Children expect their parents to feed them as well as protect and shelter them.

Why then as Christians do we have so much trouble relying on God to be our heavenly provider?  He is our Father and wants to look after us just as we want to look after our children. Most parents would be horrified if their children spurned their provision and went off to the shops to buy their own things. It is one of the joys of parenthood to provide for your children.

God does not want us worrying about money, food, clothes, jobs, homes and so on. We can expect God to provide these. That is his privilege as our Father and it is our privilege to receive them as his children with thankful hearts.

The key to this provision is to seek first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness; to put God, his ways, his lifestyle above all else. At the start of a new year let’s resolve to seek God in all we do and to stop worrying about life and let God be the provider he longs to be. 

Father and child

Too often in the midst of life’s difficulties, it is very easy to lose sight of who we are. Our view of God can become that He is the answer to our prayers and of course that he is what he is.  I need work, finance, healing, breakthrough, help with exams, healing of relationships, a spouse, security, protection, all sorts of things and God graciously answers our requests.

However I believe that instead of seeing God merely as our heavenly provider, what is so much more important is to see that God is our loving heavenly Father and we are his precious, chosen children.

Small children look at their parents and see them as the source of all they need, which they are.  They provide food, clothes, money, warmth, comfort, protection and so on but as they grow older children begin to value the relationship with their parents. Unfortunately the relationship may break down at some point due to the weakness and failure of one or both parties and too often we do not really come to appreciate our parents either till we and they are old or worse still when they've gone.

If we imagine the best possible dad, we don’t want to spend all our time asking him for things.  It would be embarrassing to have a relationship based on our wants and his provision. What we really want is to spend time with Him especially when things are tough.   Only he can provide the comfort and affirmation we need.

It is so much more wonderful is to have a relationship based not on provision but on love and confirmation of our identity as God’s chosen child. We can face a lot when we know who we are and who is always with us.

At this moment I am in the midst of a storm.  I have no idea why or how I got here.  All I know is that life is very bumpy at the moment.  I could spend all my time begging God to get me out or even to tell me how I got here or I can relax and remember who I am and who is in the boat with me.

The ride may be bumpy but I am being held by the strongest pair of arms in the universe. I may feel fearful and alone but I am not.  I am God’s child and he is not going to let me go or let me drown. I am safe with him.

I do not need provision, I need fathering. I need the reassurance that I am his child and he loves me more than I can ever know. 

Godliness with contentment

But godliness with contentment is great gain I Timothy 6:6

Contentment is a state that is hard to gain but wonderful when one can truly say you feel content. Contentment is a state of happiness and satisfaction and Paul aspires that his young charge and representative, Timothy, should learn and teach how to be content. Paul himself said that, ‘he had learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in every situation, whether living in plenty or in want.’ Philippians 4: 11 – 12.

Timothy had been sent by Paul to look after the church at Ephesus. Paul had hoped to return to it but his plans changed and so in this first letter to Timothy he is giving him further instruction in looking after the church. He encouraged him to refute false teaching and one of the errors that was infiltrating the church was that godliness was a means to financial gain.

Believers today are under ever greater pressure to believe that contentment comes when you have everything you want and of course you never do. Paul however is quite clear that contentment whether in plenty or lack is the goal not having an overflow of possessions and lots of money.

Paul tells Timothy that ‘people who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction’ (I Timothy 6: 9).  There are no get rich quick schemes and the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Eagerly desiring money is a trap. Jesus assures us that our heavenly Father will look after us; we do not need to worry about what we will eat, drink or wear (Matthew 6: 25 – 32). Paul says to Timothy that if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. And ladies, our Father knows we like nice clothes and he will provide those for us! Being content with what we have is a wonderful attribute.

If you have ever cleared out the house of a person who has died, it can be very distressing. We brought nothing into the world and can take nothing out. There will be many things that they valued and which they have left behind and which you may now have to just throw away because no one else wants them.  It puts possessions in perspective. Our Father knows what we need and he will give us those things we need and much else besides. He is a good God who gives good gifts to his children but let us learn, like Paul, to be content whether we are in a time of plenty or in a time of lack. Contentment helps us not to worry in our time of lack and to rejoice with thankfulness in our time of plenty.

Thankfulness is the key to contentment. Let us be thankful and content people who will be a joy to those around us.