Faith Focus: The God who provides
After graduating from college, I was on an extremely tight budget. Between student loans, medical expenses and cost of living, my entry level salary was barely covering all my expenses. There were times when I rode my bike to work because I couldn’t afford to purchase gasoline for my car.
It was during this time I felt God’s calling to go with my church on a mission trip to India. It seemed absurd to think I could afford a nearly $2,000 trip when I was scrimping and saving so much. But I knew God was prompting me to sign up.
Perhaps you have been in the same spot as me. Sometimes, you play the game of roulette to decide what bills will get paid on time this month. Or perhaps you have unexpected expenses come up and you aren’t sure how you’re going to cover it. Maybe you feel God’s calling to step out in faith but you don’t see how the pieces are going to come together.
The Israelites must have felt this way after escaping Egypt. For the first time in years, they were free from the tyranny of slavery, but they were wandering aimlessly in the desert in search of the Promised Land. There’s little food or water in the desert, and yet, every morning God provided for them manna and meat to eat and spring water from the rock (Exodus 16).
I have seen God provide for me in so many ways throughout the years. Once, my washing machine broke down and without asking or prompting, a friend bought me a new one. One week, I didn’t have enough money to buy food and that same week, a gift card to a restaurant arrived in the mail as a thank-you for some volunteer service I had done earlier in the year.
For the mission trip to India, I stepped out in faith and watched God provide every single dollar needed for the trip. Through donations and friends’ support, I was able to obtain all but $210 needed for the trip. The very week the final payment was due, I received two checks in the mail for a reimbursement for bills I had overpaid the previous year. The total of the two checks equaled $211. All I could do was smile at the message God was sending me – he provided even more than what I needed.
If you are a follower of Christ, he will provide for you. It may not always come in ways you expect, but he will care for you.
What are you trusting God to provide for you? Where is he asking you to step out in faith? No matter the circumstance, trust God to deliver because he is the God who provides.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on … Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” –Matthew 6:25-26
This Faith Focus is part of a special series focusing on who God is and what he does for his people.
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