In Luke 12:29–32 Jesus told His disciples, “do not be overly concerned about what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not worry about such things. For all the nations of the world pursue these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, pursue his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father is well pleased to give you the kingdom.”
Just before I sat down to write this blog, I was making a grocery list of a few items I needed for the week ahead. The most important item on my list? Heavy cream for my coffee. It’s a simple indulgence in my life, but I sure do look forward to that wonderful splash of cream in my coffee each morning. As I was adding it to my shopping cart, I was shocked to see how much the price had increased over the last few months. For a moment, my mind began to think about how, if prices continue to rise, it would affect me in many other ways beyond my morning coffee routine. Before I knew it, I had gone down a path of growing concern over needs all across my life.
When God tells us to not worry about what we eat or drink, and to instead pursue His kingdom, He is not minimizing the most basic and fundamental needs in our lives or telling us to ignore those needs. God wants us to fix our attention on Him and learn to seek Him as our Source and Provider. Those who don’t know God’s ways can’t help but strive and try and cry about the state of their needs. But for those who know who God is and the way He works, we know we can trust Him fully with every need we face.
While the world is striving and growing more anxious by the day, God wants us to know He cares so deeply for us as His beloved children. The world might be growing in concern over the price of milk and bread, but we don’t have to yield to that same panic. God knows we have those same needs. And He has not overlooked us or abandoned us. But He wants us to learn to position our hearts in a different way than the world does by exercising kingdom principles: trusting the Lord, seeking His righteousness, being obedient to His Word, being generous with our lives and resources, sharing the gospel, and walking by faith. As we do, we will learn who our Source is and we will know He will provide.
I’ve always remembered a story my grandmother told me from when she was a little girl. Her father was a young pastor at a small rural town in Oklahoma in the 1930s. They had very little and the church salary was barely enough to provide what they needed to pay their bills and put food on the table each week. The situation was likely the same for most of the families in their small country church during the Great Depression. But they trusted the Lord and faithfully served Him.
There was one particular memory my grandmother recounted. An oversight happened and the deacons at the church had forgotten to pay her father for a period of time, thinking it had been taken care of by one of the other church leaders. As the days went by, my grandmother remembers they finally reached a point where there was no food left to eat and no money to buy more. Her parents, not knowing exactly how to handle the situation, knew the best thing they could do was to pray. They gathered the family in their living room and prayed that God would send an answer, and they believed He would provide.
Just a few hours later, there was a knock at their door. A farmer, one of the deacons in their church, was standing on their porch. He told my great-grandfather that he had been out plowing in his fields, and the Holy Spirit brought my great-grandfather to his mind. He couldn’t shake him from his thoughts, so he dropped his plow and traveled into town and went to the pastor’s house. It was then they were able to share the need and the church was able to set it right.
That experience was such a clear reminder to my grandmother, and served as a testimony to others, that God is a compassionate, good Father, and He is very much aware of our daily needs. Psalm 37:3–5 reminds us when we pursue the things of God, when we delight in the Lord and trust in Him, He will answer our prayers and act on our behalf. Further on in that chapter, Psalm 37:25 says it like this, “I was once young, now I am old. I have never seen the godly abandoned, or their children forced to search for food.”
Just like God did for my grandmother as a little girl, and as He does for us today, as we trust Him, look to Him, and walk in His ways, He will meet our needs and more. He is faithful to His Word and His promises. He’s not a genie we can demand things of; He is a Sovereign God. But He is also a good Father, and when we know how to stand on His Word, to lean on His promises, to trust Him and pursue Him in our lives, we’ll find His faithfulness never ends. When we trust God to be our Source and Provider, we are tapping into a powerful source the world doesn’t understand.
Today, instead of letting concern grow over the needs we face, let’s remember that God’s faithful ways have proven true for generations. If you have a great need in your life, trust that He sees, He knows, and He cares.
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