We are in this world, but not of this world. The Lord is our Provider, not your credit card. Not your job. Not the government. Get this deep in your heart. Let it just be a part of who you are. I am a daughter of the King, and He generously provides for me. Say what He says. Let the poor say, “I am rich”, as the song goes. My God shall provide all of my needs according to His riches in glory.
I was thinking this week about inflation. The world is struggling with how to make rent, grocery and other living expenses. My generation worries how to invest our money to keep up with inflation. The younger ones worry about where to get an extra job to pay for tires. I just heard Dave say the older people will end up in travel trailers because they won’t be able to afford property taxes. Some will. If you can’t walk with the footmen, how will you run with the horses in the swelling of the Jordan? I’ll learn how to fish if He tell me to.
I remember missing college classes once when my son lost a shoe in a sandbox. We couldn’t find it. I couldn’t afford to get him another pair at the Dollar Store. I could not send him to school without shoes. We stayed home until payday. I didn’t know God as my Father and Provider then.
Later, I remember eating the last box of generic macaroni and cheese made with water for breakfast, with payday days away. No credit. No earthly family willing to help. We blessed that food, ate it and went on our way for the day. Around noon, a stranger gave me a trunk full of newly purchased groceries. God had told her to.
So, I was thinking about inflation and provision. The world’s system verses God’s system. I have proved that God is true to His covenant. Like the proof of a mathematical equation. Let God be true and every man a liar. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. I started out as a pregnant high school dropout and retired from my own business with five paid in full houses.
I’ve given away, lost and spent a lot of that. I no longer worry about it. I will always have enough for my needs and my “wants”. My needs are pretty much fixed and my wants have decreased as I’ve learned that the more one has, the more one has to take care of.
Last year, I had my house painted, a new metal roof put on the shed, bought another car and a washer and dryer set. I’d been needing those things. I took the money out of savings to write the checks. Today my savings account is back to where I started. I had no extra income in the year. My income is fixed, and on paper, it stretches just enough to live form check to check. I don’t spend my savings, unless God tells me to. My God will provide.
It’s all about what He does for us, not what we can do. Mercy and grace. Grace and mercy. All of it unmerited. Provider, Healer, Savior, Deliverer, King of Kings, Lord of lords, God of the Angel Armies, the Holy One.
There I will provide for you, lest you and your household, and all that you have, come to poverty;
And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
Matthew 17:24-27
Peter and His Master Pay Their Taxes
When they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?”
He said, “Yes.”
And when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?”
Peter said to Him, “From strangers.”
Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you.”
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be justified in Your words, And may overcome when You are judged.”
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.
A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Mark 10:29-30
So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, 30 who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.
For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.