Our Father Provides - July 2, 2017 - Steve Miller
Do you feel like a child or an adult? Here are some thoughts someone compiled on the subject.
· Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional.
· Boys never grow up. Just their toys get bigger and bigger!
· We never really grow up, we just learn how to behave in public.
· Some people are like trees - they take forever to grow up.
· I haven't changed. I just see things differently now.
Mark 10:13-16 - He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
What does Jesus mean when He says we must receive the kingdom of God like a little child?
Do any of these sayings sound familiar to you?
· You've got to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.
· God helps those who help themselves.
· You have to earn a living.
· You have to make your own way in this world.
· You have to provide for yourself.
We live in America, a culture of independence and self-reliance. There is some truth in the statements above. Hard work is good, and so is acceptance of responsibility. But as Christians, children in God's family, we need to see things differently than our culture does. Specifically, our culture worries a lot about money.
Matthew 6:25-34 - 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.
The key concept Jesus is telling us is that we have a Father who takes responsibility to provide for our needs. We who are in Christ are members of His family, His children.
Even in our culture, children are not meant to carry the burden of providing basic necessities of food, clothing, shelter, health care, and education for themselves. Likewise, then, if God is indeed our Father, the responsibility for provision for our basic needs falls on Him.
Is this a message of irresponsibility?
The key verse in Jesus' teaching is this: But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. In any proper family, children are given work to do by their parents.
Growing up, I was never concerned about paying for any of life's necessities. My parents never laid that burden on me. But they didn't let me grow up as a lazy person, either. They gave me work to do.
This is the meaning of "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." As children in God's family, our responsibility is to find out what He asks us to do and do it to the best of our ability. His responsibility is to provide for us all that we need. Sometimes it seems that those two concepts are connected, in the form of our paycheck. But sometimes they are not, and all of us would do well to keep the two concepts, the work God assigns to us and His provision for us, separate. Understanding this truth helps us to trust God and not worry.
If my primary goal after graduating from college had been to provide for myself financially, I would not have followed the career path that Cathy and I have. Sometime I learned to yield my path to the Lord's will, praying that He would lead me to the work that He wanted me to do. Cathy and I could tell myriad testimonies of the Lord's provision in our life together. Although our tax forms might suggest we are poor, we live a life of ample provision.
God's career and provision path for us will not be the same as His path is for you, but He will show you the same fatherly faithfulness.
Paul taught about living as children in God's family in broader scope and greater depth in Ephesians 1.
Ephesians 1:3-14
· Our membership in God's family is an adoption that comes in Christ Jesus through His grace. How many times does this repeat some form of the phrase "in Christ"? Your provision as God's child, of whatever kind you may need, comes to you by grace in Christ Jesus.
· His provision for us, like every other spiritual blessing we receive from the Father, is for the praise of His glory. No credit for provision goes to us. The reason that we belong to God's family and have everything that we need is because God is awesome, plain and simple.
· Our earthly provision is just the tip of the iceberg of the manifold inheritance that we have from our adoption into God's family.
What we need is to see ourselves and our provision the way God sees us, in the light of the Gospel. We need a revelation from Him, a change in our earthly thinking and viewpoint. That is one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit with whom we were marked. Here is Paul's prayer for the Ephesians and for us:
Ephesians 1:15-23 - I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
I remember a time when I was three years old when I failed to trust my dad to keep me above water in the swimming pool. Of course, I was totally safe in his arms.
In the same way, we need to believe that our heavenly Father knows what we need and has promised to provide it for us. Then we are freed from worry about those things, and can seek His kingdom and His righteousness for our lives each day. Holy Spirit, give us Your wisdom and revelation, that we may know our Father better.
