Why the Provision of God Faces Different than the Richness of the World.

Photo by Emilio Takas on Unsplash

Supposing you had been raised in the Western world, you had been presented with a very particular image of what a good life should look like. Nice house. Reliable car. Stable job. Money in the bank. The maturing account of retirement. Financial security.

That was not an evil picture. There is nothing bad about seeking stability and taking care of your family well. But this is what usually goes on with Christians who partake of the image without reflection: they begin to gauge the faithfulness of God by the scope to which their life can identify it. When money is soft, God is near and liberal. When it gets chippy, he is aloof or reserved.

And there is where something goes wrong. Since the biblical image of God's supply appears so truly, even appalling, unlike the supply of the world. Not inferior different. You will also continue striving to judge God by a standard that he never established, and by a scale that he never intended to accept, that he may be found wanting.

This paper is on the recalibration of that measure. Not to spiritualize poverty, and to make it sound like God does not think about practical needs, he does. but to see candidly at what his provision really appears all through Scripture, and why it has little to do with a bursting bank account.

What the World Calls Provision.

The definition of provision in the world is concerning accumulation and security in abundance. You are taken care of when you have enough, or better yet, more, so that outer conditions cannot bother you. The more the savings, the better the security. The more resources one has, the more choices they get. The panic is scarcity and the answer has always been the same: obtain more.

This is not an invention of ours. The parable Jesus taught in Luke 12, would have been composed yesterday. An affluent gentleman takes pleasure in the abundant crop to a point of filling his barns to the brim, then smashes them down to build bigger and bigger ones. He says to himself: "You have plenty of grain laid away all many years, take time and eat, drink and be merry. His reasoning is sound according to worldly standards. He labored, made a fortune, and ensured his future.

The reaction of God is quite direct: You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared?"

It was not an issue of wealth. It was what his wealth would accomplish, to win his own future; to make away with doubt, to make him independent, of all that is external to himself, in body or spirit, of God among them. Life is something not allowed to be kept in barns. The future cannot be purchased in advance.

The stage of how God is relayed in the Bible.

The world version of God is a lot more comfortable, personal, and interesting as compared to the biblical version model of the same.

Consider manna. God could have provided Israel with months of supplies when he fed them in the wilderness. Rather he gave them just enough to last one day, day by day, day by day, fresh day by day. Provided they hoarded it, it was putrefied. This provision was geared in such a way that it would feature daily dependence.

The reason is to be found in Deuteronomy 8:3 where it is stated: he humbled you, and made you hungry, and fed you with manna, that he might give you to know that man is not subsistent upon bread alone, but upon every word proceeding out of the mouth of God.

God would provide per day instead of piling wealth to ensure the relationship existed. Each day they got up and their lives were no longer in the things they had saved but in whatever he was going to give. It makes the self-sufficiency conscious feel uncomfortable. But when you see the cause it is beautiful. To be needed every day, not every now and then was what God desired.

 

The Pattern Runs through the Whole Bible.

It is not a single example, but the pattern that runs all through the Scripture.  Elijah on the Wadi Cherith. God did not put a store of corn in his possession, but dispatched ravens and bread and meat every morning and evening. One day at a time. In the drying up of the brook, God sent him to a widow in Zarephath, not a rich lady, but a poor woman to the last handful of her flour. And God inclined himself, and gave, and maintained through her daily all through the famine.

The oil of the widow in 2 Kings 4. She herself was in debt, and her sons were about to become slaves. Elisha instructed her to take empty jars and pour out of the little bit of oil possession she had. it continued flowing till all the jars were filled then ceased. Exactly enough. Not a bank, but sufficient to meet the demand now.

The five thousand with the loaf and fish. Thousands of people, five loaves, two fish. Jesus did not make a freight prior to any mouth being starving. He waited till the necessity was actual and existent, and he offered, with a dozen baskets remaining. Enough, and more. But prepared in time of need, and not hoarded.

The trend is the same: God supplies when a need arises, in quantities that keep at the right time but not with excess, in forms that keep the people face to face, not to a hoard.

The Goodness of God in Giving This Way.

This isn't capriciousness. There exist actual, consistent accounts as to why God so commonly presents himself.

The relationship remains dependent. When your tomorrow is assured by your own competences, prayer is unnecessary and gratitude is something next to nothing. When you truly do not know where you will be getting the next provision, then you will sense the urgency and reality of prayer. God is relational. He desires the intimacy that need provides not because he likes to see people suffer, but because there can be little relationship with someone one never needs to struggle with.

It shows what you really trust. One of the best diagnostics you will have of the location where your heart is laying is the season of financial need. Whatever you are really trusting shows when the cushion is gone. Misplaced trust is signified by anxiety. True peace shows a confidence that has transcended the ideology. Such seasons are agonising and excruciatingly enlightening simultaneously.

Generosity involves having adequate wealth and not amassing it. The pattern of biblical provision is usually that which is just enough, or enough which puts individuals in a position where individuals receive to give out instead of hoarding to themselves. The economy of God appears to be circulatory. You get, you give, some one gets, he gives. The second option - stock up to a place where you feel safe and then share what you have left, now, become used to sharing only after you have lots of it to give, otherwise generosity will be constantly postponed.

What About Prosperity? Does God Sometimes Inanimate with Riches?

Yes and the bible does not posit that prosperity is never a part of God's blessing. Abraham was wealthy. Solomon extraordinarily so. The restoration of Job entailed doubled possessions. Some of the Psalms relate obedience to prosperity, and the wisdom literature reveals hard work to pay.

The prosperity gospel picks up these strands and develops a theology whereby prosperity is a reliable indicator of God capturing the shoulder and where poverty is a reliable indicator of weak faith. That system is not endorsed by the entire wisdom of the Scripture and does actual harm in the actual life.

The reality of the Bible is that wealth is either a blessing or a test or a trap, or it is a combination of these things. Abraham was not only wealthy but his faith was also tested when God asked to sacrifice the son who was his sole legacy. His wealth was also incredible in extent and the situation in which Solomon at one point turned his heart out of God. The young wealthy prince turned away and unhappy on the other hand because his wealth had now turned into that which was not to be lost.

Money in the bible is ethically neutral but spiritually unstable. It is able to finance supreme generosity. It can even silently usurp God as a place of security and identity. It is always a matter of how much you possess, not how much you possess of it.

Actionable Ways This is What Alters your Living.

Realizing that the fact that God provided is not the same as the prosperity of the world is not only theology, but it makes the way of your real life different.

It alters your reaction to scarcity. When the money becomes tight, the world interprets this to mean that something has gone wrong. Something different is opened out in the biblical interpretation: it may be a season of deliberate reliance, of day-by-day recognition that your life is on your means no longer but on his keeping. That does not make that easy. But it transforms the meaning altogether.

It alters your method of giving. In case what God has provided can be described as enough, instead of excessive, then you should not wait till you have more than sufficient to give generously would mean that you will never give generously. The woman with the two small coins was an act of poverty, and not a surplus, so to speak, so was the example set by Jesus. Donating what you have and not what you have left is more of a biblical trend as compared to the trend that most of the comforted people in the Western Church have.

It transforms your praying habits. Jesus told his disciples to pray to have their daily bread today, not to have life savings, not a pension, not to have a full year of bread. Present tense. Specific. Dependent. Daily. It is no failure of faith to take your current needs to God it is just the attitude that the model used by him in supply is supposed to encourage.

FAQ: The Provision of God vs. The World's Wealth

Q: Does God desire Christians to be poor?

No. Poverty is not a moral virtue and the bible does not hold in destitution as something good. Contentedness, generosity, and the heart that is not too baptized with money is what Scripture always appreciates. It is not about what you have but what you are made with in terms of the way those gifts impact on your heart and how much you are growing near to God.

Q: Am I unjustified to save money and invest in the future?

In Proverbs, the ant is praised because it hoards for winter. Prudent budgeting is not preached against. The issue the parable of the rich fool deals with is not saving, but putting the supreme trust in the amassed wealth as an alternative to the dependence on God. Wisdom does not necessitate strictness in carrying your security; you can carry it slackily knowing that it is inundated in God and not in the account balance.

Question: Why does God appear to favour certain people and not others?

It is really one of the most difficult questions in the Christian life, and the Bible does not provide a nice formula. Among the illustrations given concerning faith, Hebrews 11, has included the destitute, wandering people. The enigma of personal situations is factual. The constant promise of Scripture is always the presence of God in any situation - and eventual provision, even during this stage that is not all when it comes to providing.

Q: How do I have faith in the provision of God when I am in actual trouble?

Performing the next right thing, the right thing to do, that is by working hard, finding assistance where necessary, making sound judgments whilst praying with specificity and having an open hand shall benefit. Trust does not mean waiting. It is fervent loyalty and the true giving up of what you can never possess. And you need the faithful communing of your society to support you when faith is difficult.

Q: What is the distinction between contentment and complacency?

Contentment is achieved harmony that is not based on changing conditions. Complacency refers to idle acceptance of something you are responsible to take care of. Paul was satisfied in both his plenty and his poverty but he was industrious and foresighted. Being content is not to peg your peace on something that you cannot control. It does not imply nothing.

Conclusion

The world is not wealthy when it comes to God providing. It is more intimate, more interpersonal, more habitual. It is based on keeping your dependency on him instead of providing you with the assurance that you do not need him.

It is not the second best provision. It is a better one in the most sense. Since what you really need is not so much a financial cushion, not so much abundance, but a relationship with such God who created you and understands what your life is about. His provision is balanced so as to maintain that relationship and not to substitute it.

It did not become any worse when the manna was given each day. It did not mean that the widow had bad oil as it showed up one day at a time. The five thousand did not lack more to eat since the bread was multiplied just when required.

God provides. Faithfully, immediately, subtly, frequently in a manner that has no semblance to what you anticipated. But it is enough. And he is a person who loves you so much that he continues to show up every morning. And my God shall fulfil all your necessities, as unto the wealth of his glory in Christ Jesus.

All your needs. Not all your wants. Not plenty that makes us independent. Your needs - supplied by a God far enough off to pay, and near enough to be interested.

Written By Hirwa Karake Bertrand

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