God’s Provision

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” (Matthew 6:25).

My brother Elvis and I moved to the town of Buea to live together while I attended university and he went to a bilingual grammar school. Our experiences there became a platform to test our faith. Facing malaria, hunger, and the challenge of going to school on a tricycle, we discovered that God was teaching us to depend on him and was demonstrating his unfailing love.

There were moments when we ran out of every scrap of food and money and it felt like we were going to starve to death. I felt so helpless all I could do was cry and pray. One of those days, as Elvis helped me get home, he asked me to guess what we were eating for dinner. I guessed that help had arrived from the village in response to our numerous letters to our parents asking for food and money. But I was wrong.

As Elvis served me a plate of delicious rice and tomato stew, he told me that earlier that evening he met a woman carrying a baby by the roadside. She had just alighted from a taxi with a load of supplies. In his typical kind way, Elvis offered to help her. She unexpectedly rewarded his thoughtfulness with two coins. He used these to buy ingredients and prepare the warm meal he served me.

We still recount the story of this woman and the two coins. They saved us from hunger, but more importantly, they taught us a lesson about God’s miraculous power to provide. When difficulties seemed to ridicule any hope of a bright future, Jesus’s words rang in my ears: “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:26).

Reflection

Prayerfully ask God to remind you of occasions when he has provided for you and praise him for his provision. Are there things you need to trust him for now? Bring those needs to him in prayer and ask him to help you trust his provision.