Quotes about Provision

The Lord is my shepherd and nothing is wanting to me. In green pastures He hath settled me.

There was no water. Food by tons would have no value. You need water to survive. If the ravens brought Elijah filet steaks, fresh vegetables and the best-tasting bread it would have meant nothing.

When the brook dries up, we know it is time to move. God has something better in mind. Count on it. He will never leave you nor forsake you (seen Hebrews 13:5). No good thing will He withhold from you when it is God's will

home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die." 1 Kings 17:8—12

Having been faced with a dried-up brook—a closed door if there ever was one—Elijah needed a window. He got it: The Lord told him to go to Zarephath of Sidon where a widow would look after him. The ravens and the brook, then, were to be succeeded by a Gentile widow about a hundred miles away. Zarephath was outside Israel in Gentile territory. It turns out that God had been at work behind the scenes: "I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.

We will learn in this chapter of 1 Kings 17 the amazing and surprising ways God supplies our needs. But it also demonstrates God's love for all peoples, not only Israel.

And yet this part of the story shows that God supplies our need in a way that is both extraordinary but also ordinary. The extraordinary: The flour and oil were never used up. The ordinary: There was just enough for each day. It was never a case of a hundred barrels of flour and oil being wasted before their eyes. The amount was small and always

there. Enough is enough. You do not need flour and oil for tomorrow; only for today. You can live only one day at a time. You can take only one bite at a time. What more could you cope with anyway? My dad's favorite verse was, "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matthew 6:33). The next verse goes on to say, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

I find a provision in the constitution of the world for the writer or secretary, who is to report the doings of the miraculous spirit of life that everywhere throbs and works.

If economic catastrophe does come, will it be a time that draws Christians together to share every resource we have, or will it drive us apart to hide in our own basements or mountain retreats, guarding at gunpoint our private stores from others? If we faithfully use our assets for his kingdom now, rather than hoarding them, can't we trust our faithful God to provide for us then?

Why ask for your daily bread when you own the bakery?

When God provides more money we often think, This is a blessing. Yes, but it would be just as scriptural to say, "This is a test." Abundance isn't God's provision for me to live in luxury. It's his provision for me to help others live.