To Live is Christ — relying on His supply

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:11)

Sometimes we don’t even have to ask. Last night a friend and I shared the times God took care of our needs as we anxiously tried to figure out ways to do it ourselves. We both had stories of exact amounts of unexpected money coming in to pay unexpected bills, before we had become desperate enough to ask God for help.

It isn’t only physical need. My sister remembers coming back from living overseas. She had become a Christian in a foreign land, and was anxious about going to church in Canada because she didn’t know any Christians. The only one she could remember was a Daily Vacation Bible School teacher we had in the summers of our youth many years before. She entered the church and found a seat near the back. A woman came and sat beside her. It was that DVBS teacher.

Sometimes He answers our requests when it didn’t seem like He was going to. I work diligently to prepare good questions for the Bible study class I teach and pray that God will use it in some way. However, there are days it seems as if those in the class get nothing from it. Yesterday was one of those days. Feeling discouraged, I checked my electronic messages later in the afternoon. I was overwhelmed at one from a person in the class who thanked me and described the way God used the session to bless and encourage her.

Sometimes I pray for what I think is a good thing and God gives something better, or I pray for the easy route and God gives me a mountain to climb. I might ask for what makes me happy, but He gives me what adds up to long-term joy. He knows me better than I know myself.

Also, God is mystery; His ways are not my ways. Experience agrees with the Bible . . . He “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” (Ephesians 3:20)

Today, I’m tired and my to-do list seems out of control. I’ve teased my DH that I need a houseboy, but I know that God knows what I need. I might ask Him to stretch the hours, or give added strength, or make me wise concerning that never-ending list, but whatever I ask for, He has taught me that I can trust Him to answer with wisdom. I may get what I think I want, but no matter what He gives, it will be good — and exactly what I need.