He Provides Lavishly
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For days I have been meditating on God being mindful of every little need we have. I read an old devotional that I came across - from "Our Daily Bread" in Jan. 1994. I'm going to quote it:
"Pastor Roy S. Nicholson told of a time when he had no money to buy food. Determined to trust God for his needs and not tell anyone, he and his wife presented their case to the Lord in prayer.
The next morning he set the table for breakfast, confident that the Lord would provide something to eat. Just then a boy from their Sunday school came to the house with a sack of flour and some milk. Tears welled up in the pastor's eyes. No sooner had he left than "Granny" Turner appeared at the door carrying a large serving tray loaded with Virginia ham, eggs, grits and gravy, hot biscuits, butter, jelly, and coffee. Nicholson was filled with praise to God."
I actually teared up when I read it. God didn't just provide - He provided lavishly. A beautiful feast!
It reminded me of a couple occasions in our lives. I'm pretty sure I've shared them before, but I want to do so again. I was blessed afresh as I thought back to these times of how God met our needs.
We had spoken at an evening service at a church. Everyone was gone, and we were sitting in our vehicle (a YWAM car) in an empty parking lot in the cold of winter. We weren't sure what to do. We had no money. We were low on petrol, had nowhere to stay that night, and hadn't eaten dinner. We were praying together, and discussing how we could sleep in the car.
Just then a car pulled up to the driver's side of the car, rolled down its window, and handed Floyd some money. The man said he was sitting at home watching the news, when he felt the Lord told him to come back to the church parking lot and give us money. The 3 of us wept at God's wonderful provision.
The other time that came back so clearly to my mind was in Afghanistan. We had a house ministry reaching out to the hippies of that day. At the time we had about 20-25 young people in the house. I set the table for dinner. We had some guests from the expat community joining us that evening. I told Floyd that we were eating the last of the food we had. I had no idea what we would do for breakfast. We had a wonderful evening of sharing and fellowship. We had a combination of non-believers and new believers in the house. It was wonderful to share testimonies of God's goodness.
Afterwards, as I was clearing the table, I found some money under the plate of one of our guests. I had tears as I told Floyd we would be able to buy food for breakfast!
Honestly, I could go on and on sharing wonderful examples like these of how God has provided over and over and over, in so many different ways, in our lives. He is a wonderful, generous, caring Father. He knows every detail of our lives - and He provides in detail. He is so good!! He longs for us to share our hearts, our needs, our struggles with Him. He is always listening, and always working to help us. And always providing!!
"Abraham said, 'My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb.' " Genesis 22:8
"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." Hebrews 13:5
"Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Matthew 6:33
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philippians 4:6
"My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19
"Those who seek the Lord lack no good thing." Psalm 34:10
"I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread." Psalm 37:25
Amen, amen!! We can bring every need, every care, every problem, every burden to Him. He cares. Even as I've been writing this, something came up and I needed to stop and talk to the Lord. I'm so grateful that I can take every detail to Him. What a wonderful God He is!