It’s About God: The “Who” Precedes The “What”Sample

"

When does God provide?

Most of us believe that God provides, but we usually feel that His timing is off. He appears perpetually late. If He supplies what His will requires, then when does He do that? Let me suggest three situations in which God can be counted on to provide.

First, He provides when His name and glory are on the line. He provides when it is clearly about Him—not about us. David wrote, “Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness”. God's will is about God—and the quicker we come to understand that, the better off we’ll be. Jesus taught His disciples to pray for God's kingdom to come and His will to be done so that His would be the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. God is keen on His own glory, and He can be counted on to provide when His provision points to His glory.

Second, God provides when we walk in humility before Him. Moses was a humble man. We are told, that Moses "was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth." When God first spoke to Moses to call him, Moses responded not with puffed-up pride, but with humility: "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" Four times Moses pleaded his own unworthiness, and four times God reassured him of His provision.

God wants us to respond to him in humility. He knows our limitations. Charles Stanley says it like this: "God knows our limitations and usually will place us in situations that stretch our faith far beyond what we think we can bear. God wants to develop our faith, and in order to do this our faith must be tested!”

Finally, God provides when we come face to face with our shortcomings and insecurities. When we know how little power or control we have, when we see how meager our resources are, we are primed to trust in God’s provision. The bravest person in the world is not the one who buries his or her insecurity, but who faces it head-on. When you and I face our insecurities and plead to God that we don't have what it takes to move forward, He is quick to supply what we need to do His will.