“What do you need?”
Last week, I returned from a whirlwind journey to Thailand and Bangladesh with Saving Moses. It was a phenomenal trip, getting loads of things accomplished, meeting new people, catching up with established friendships, seeing the work we’re currently doing and looking at possible new places. The trip was very successful in the sense of accomplishing lots of work. In terms of the physical and emotional grind for me, it was a very difficult trip, with lots of overnight flights, significant time changes, funky food (which I LOVE) and seeing and experiencing very horrific things relating to babies and toddlers. By the time I landed back in the US, I was entirely exhausted, having travelled non-stop for more than 30 hours, 5 flights and navigating a 12 hour time change.
This isn’t a “poor me” blog, but rather I hope to give you some fresh perspective on God providing for us. When we think about the question, “What do you need?”, it seems to me that we’re often quick to answer with some kind of money response. In our answer, it’s often automatic that we think about paying off various loans, paying our bills, buying something necessary or helpful. But if you asked me what I needed last week, I would have immediately replied that I needed time and rest.
I needed to catch my breath and that’s exactly what God gave me last week. When I landed in the US, my schedule was organized such that I had two nights away from my home to accomplish some important business meetings, which weren’t long or grueling. This time was massively helpful for my body and sleep to make some initial adjustments for getting back into my home culture and time zone.
In relation to divine provision, it says in Philippians 4:19, “God supplies all of our needs, according to His riches in glory, . . . “ This verse can encourage us in several ways. To begin, it’s very helpful to establish and remind ourselves that God is our provider and the ultimate source for everything we need. To this end, we must consistently remember to see God as our provider and not our paycheck, job, intellectual abilities, relationships, physical strength, etc.
Additionally God can give us what we need in lots of different ways: money through our job, wisdom through a conversation, book, blog, podcast, time through a cancelled appointment, creative solutions to a problem and inner strength to carry on. How God supplies our needs is best left in God’s hands for God’s methods.
Finally, it gives me great confidence and comfort to recognize the divine timing element for divine provision. I bring this to your attention because of God providing a ram in the thicket for Abraham at the exact moment of his greatest need, in Genesis 22:10-13. The timing element was very clear to me last week, when God gave me some breathing room to recover from a very intense and effective trip.
Regardless of what you need, make the decision to keep your eyes focused on God and choose to trust that God is good, timely, creative, loving and abundant in divine provision!
