Throughout the course of the next few months our devotional series is honing in on God’s provision and protection. What does it look like in the Bible? What does that mean for us?
God Provides Differently Than We Expect/Want
It inevitably happens at some point in our lives. We pray and ask relentlessly for help, guidance, or relief and it seems as though God never answers and we feel without hope in our situations. It isn’t usually until after the fact that we are able to see that it was for a reason and God was shaping us through our circumstances.
If you are there right now consider this, the Israelites were freed from the Egyptians through Moses only to face the challenges of the desert. Now, instead of worshipping God they quickly complained of lack of food and water in the desert. We continually see God provide for his people again and again in supernatural ways. Yet, even though this is the case the people wanted what they left behind in Egypt along with a life-sentence of bondage and hard labor. Instead of accepting God’s provision and protection the way He intended it they wanted His provision a different way. More specifically, they wanted it their own way.
Does this make sense? NO! But are we doing the same thing? Are we failing to trust in God and instead relying on what we think God should do?
CHALLENGE:
Pray for God to provide according to His will and His timing. It might be different than what you wanted or expected, but let God work in his supernatural and miraculous ways. Don’t try to put God in a box and tell Him what to do and when to do it. You are HIS!
Maybe you are at a place in life that isn’t what you had expected. Be careful about wishing your life away because you aren’t grateful for what you currently have. Choose to be present. Make every moment count for God’s glory. Pray for the faith to stop complaining about how God has provided for you. Rather, give yourself fully to Him and rejoice in what he has given you.
SCRIPTURE TO READ:
“I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread” (Psalms 37:25).
“2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” (Exodus 16:2-3)
