In week 4 of our study ‘Honoring God with Our Money,’ we are looking at how God provides for us and what He asks of us in return. We began the lesson by asking you to consider how God has recently provided for your family.
Every day God is providing for us. We don’t also acknowledge His provisions and often we aren’t even consciously aware of the many ways God provides for us. I encourage people I speak to, particularly women, to keep journals of clear incidences of God’s provision. Some financial blessings are quite apparent–you receive an unexpected check in the mail or someone treats your family to lunch. Others are less apparent–you discover a small leak in your roof before it becomes a major problem, a bill is less than you expected, or many of the items on your shopping list are on sale this week.
God’s provisions are not always financial–God provides words of encouragement, helping hands, open doors and closed doors, solutions to difficult problems, and other clear demonstrations of His love when we need them. I encourage you to record those provisions as well.
In Deuteronomy 8:17-18 we read, “You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to product wealth.”
It is God who gives us our mental and physical abilities. Without his grace and provision, we are able to do nothing. I am always pleased when I hear athletes, actors, songwriters, and other celebrities thanking God for the talent He has given them. Like them, we should daily acknowledge that it is only through God’s provisions for us that we are able to work to provide for our families.
We need to trust God for our provisions. The following verses are just two of the many times in God word that He promises that His people will never go without food and that He will provide for us when we ask Him.
Psalm 37:25 “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging for bread.”
Matthew 7:7 – 8 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
God wants us to ask Him for what we need and to thank Him when He meets are needs. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you become more aware of the many ways God blesses you financially each week and make a habit to acknowledge these blessings and thank God for them.
Please feel free to share ways you have seen God provide for your family recently.
Susan's Reflections 