The last few weeks, we have been learning about the church element of God’s provision. Provision is truly the heart of God. Beyond just the material necessities of life, God provides healing, comfort, deliverance, joy, peace, restoration, wisdom, guidance, and so much more!
God abundantly and freely provides all of these things, even to wicked and evil people still in their sin. If this is the case, then why is it that we still find ourselves in need; especially when we live in faithful pursuit of God?
Well, let’s spend some time today going over some possibilities.
1. We do not ask
James 4:2b (AMPC)
You do not have, because you do not ask
Remember that it takes just as much faith to ask when in need as it does to give generously to meet needs. Often, we have need simply because we are too proud to ask for help.
Presenting our needs to God, and to our brothers and sisters in Christ, is part of God’s plan for us. We are a body and need each other by design. You have what I need and I have what you need and it is only together that those needs are swallowed up by God’s abundance.
Other than simply not asking, why else might our needs not be met?
2. We doubt or lack faith
James 1:6-8 (AMPC)
6 Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind. 7 For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything [he asks for] from the Lord,
8 [For being as he is] a man of two minds (hesitating, dubious, irresolute), [he is] unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything [he thinks, feels, decides].
Doubting, being double-minded, places us in a position where we should not expect to receive anything from God. That’s a pretty serious issue! God wants us to trust Him fully; being wholly surrendered and walking by faith alone.
Mark 11:22-24
22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
In our times of need, we need to ask for help and have full faith in God; shaking off any areas of doubt. Single minded, single focused faith. This leads us into the next possibility. Sometimes, we ask for the right things which seem godly and even with a scriptural backing, but for wrong reasons.
3. We ask with wrong motives
James 4:3 (AMPC)
[Or] you do ask [God for them] and yet fail to receive, because you ask with wrong purpose and evil, selfish motives. Your intention is [when you get what you desire] to spend it in sensual pleasures.
Now before you think, “That is absolutely not me!”, consider this truth.
Proverbs 16:2
All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord.
God sees beyond our need and what we ask for straight into the motives of our hearts. Sometimes, we even deceive ourselves thinking that we are in legitimate need of something for a good and godly reason.
However, our motives may not be so pure or good. The reason that we are in need might be an issue with our motives as well and meeting those needs might just mask an issue that God wants to deal with and deliver us from.
Consider health issues. Pain medication may seem awesome as it makes us feel better and able to live normally. However, if that medication is just masking a symptom of a serious issue, that medication is not actually helping us, it is hurting us. If instead, the root, underlying issue is taken care of, we would be healed; whole and healthy.
God wants us whole and complete; lacking nothing. If He wants to heal some holes in our lives, He might just stop pouring into our lives whatever is masking those holes.
The Lord knows all and sees all and is aware of what giving us what we ask for would result in.
Jeremiah 17:9-10
9 The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?
10 “I the Lord search the heart
and examine the mind,
to reward each person according to their conduct,
according to what their deeds deserve.”
Ultimately, God knows what is best for us and won’t give us something that would not be good for us. If we back up just a few verses, we’re reminded that:
Jeremiah 17:7-8
7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
8 They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”
This transitions us into the next possible reason that we still have need:
4. It’s simply not God’s will or God’s timing
Ecclesiastes 3:1 (AMPC)
To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter or purpose under heaven
Jesus taught us to pray to God that:
Matthew 6:10
Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
He, Himself prayed three times about going to the cross:
Luke 22:42
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
If even Jesus, Himself, struggled to accept and endure a painful season of need from our Heavenly Father, it’s OK for us to as well. There is a purpose for everything in our lives, even need. We can ask in fullness of faith and stand on His promises, but ultimately, His perfect will and timing is what will be done.
How should we respond? Jesus said to keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking!
Galatians 6:9
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
2 Peter 3:8-9
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
God is our provider. Our part to play is to live by faith, trusting God FOR everything and WITH everything. When we faithfully do our part, God will faithfully do His part. At just the right time, God will instantly release His provision!
As we maintain an attitude of generosity, willing to give anything and everything that we have at God’s request, He will prove to be our faithful source.
Not only does God’s word teach us this, but His natural world that He created reveals to us this fact.
What you don’t sow won’t grow!
What you don’t sow won’t grow!
When you hold an acorn in your hand, you are holding a massive forest full of mighty oaks which will produce countless other acorns and oaks from now until Jesus returns!
What is preventing that acorn from becoming that forest?
It’s still in your hand!
What you don’t sow won’t grow.
We want peace, but we refuse to be peace-makers.
We want healing, but we refuse to stop divisive gossip.
We want freedom, but we keep buying and consuming what enslaves us.
And I could go on…
We reap what we sow.
God can’t grow something that we hold tightly onto refusing to release it into His hands!
For seed to grow, it must be buried in death.
Only then can God take it from there; transforming that seed into a new life and grow it into its full potential!
2 Corinthians 9:6-15
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written:
“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures forever.”
10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Our faithful obedience to God expressed through generosity is what releases our lives into His hands. It doesn’t make any worldly sense to give something away in order for it to produce an abundance, but that’s how God created and purposed all things.
A harvest is produced only when seed is sacrificially sown and given away into God’s hands. Only then is God able to make all things grow and reach their full potential!
What are you holding onto?
What in your life needs God’s transforming power?
Now might just be the time to let go of it.
Sow it.
Trust it into God’s hands.
Only He is able to bring life from death, healing from brokenness, beauty from ashes, and so much more!
Church Elements: Provision!