God Gives the Increase

Archive for the ‘The LORD your Provider’ Category

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want” Psalm 23:1

In America, our roots produce independent people, self-starters, entrepreneurs, business tycoons, and an all around spirit of self-sufficiency. Dependence on others is for wimps, a real man does not ask for directions.

Pride is the governing factor of all thinking in a fallen world. When a sinner becomes a Christian, they find themselves in a fallen world at odds with a biblical world-view that honors God as the provider of all things.

The bible never speaks of man as self-sufficient except in a sinful sense, and uses the most horrible terms to describe him, such as, wicked, self-willed, and willfully ignorant. Jesus referred to people as sheep, which are stupid animals, easy prey, which cannot find food, and allow themselves to be so dirty they can die.

The sovereign God of the universe chose to make Himself a shepherd to His people; He had to, because God alone is the source of all things. The idea that God makes things and then sets them on their way to care for themselves, as if they could, is ludicrous. Speaking of Jesus the Bible says, ‘He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” Colossians 1:17, it is Christ who keeps all things from coming apart.

The Christian is given a new awareness of his dependency on God for life, sustenance, intelligence, purpose, direction, and most of all cleansing from sin.

The Christian can say with assurance, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures: he leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul: he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for You are with me; thy rod and Your staff they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: you anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever” Psalm 23.

“In the same way, a husband should love his wife as much as he loves himself. A husband who loves his wife shows that he loves himself. None of us hate our own bodies. We provide for them and take good care of them, just as Christ does for the church” Ephesians 28-29. (Emphasis added)

God who provides for His people is the Lord Jesus Christ. Of Christ, John the Baptist said, “…the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” All the blessings recorded in the New Testament to God’s people come through the Lamb of God, which takes away their sin. Sin is the reason Christ came, which is why sin should never be excused for some Freudian psychoanalysis of a socially derived childhood condition.

In a fallen world where sin is not recognized as the problem, Christ is not seen as the answer. When Christ loved the church, He gave Himself for it, so that, “…he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word…” These terms signify Christ dealing with sin to provide and love the church best.

As the man provides for his own body, he is to care for his wife, which is a reflection of how Christ provided for the church out of sacrificial love and devotion equal to self-interest. All that Christ now provides He does through the sacrifice of Himself at Calvary, where His substitution for sin was accomplished.

All the love the Christian receives from Christ in his physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, financial, and social condition is received through the work Christ accomplished on the cross.

How then should the Christian view the problems he faces?

“And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, in the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.” Genesis 22:13-14

From a human point of view, it is unimaginable that a loving father who believed his greatest blessing in life would come through his son would put that child to death. Yet, that is exactly what Abraham did.

When Isaac his son asked about the sacrificial lamb Abraham’s reply was, “the Lord will provide,” whatever else Abraham may have believed about killing his son, one thing he knew to be true, in Isaac lay the blessing of God. In Hebrews 11, we are told Abraham offered up his only begotten son or in Greek ‘the only ordained to be,’ therefore, “in Isaac shall your seed be called.”

Abraham made a crucial mistake years before when he allowed himself to father a child by a woman not his wife in an attempt to fulfill the will of God. He had to live with that mistake and its consequences for many years, he would not allow that to happen again, but would follow God’s instructions to the letter without question.

The great lesson of this story is not that Abraham had great faith, but that God provides what men need to bring Him glory. God and not man provided the sacrificial lamb that accomplished the will of God, “…and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.”

“Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked and behold behind him a ram…” The God who gave Him eyes to see also provided the lamb, and changed his heart so that he might trust. "For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" Philippians 2:13.

Christian, what works of grace in your heart can you praise God for?

“And Abraham called the name of that place the LORD your Provider (Yehovah Yireh): as it is said to this day, in the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.” Genesis 22:14

The name Yehovah reveals God as the Great I AM, the self-existent God by whom all things came to be. When Yehovah is combined with another name, such as Provides, it becomes the compound name the LORD your provider or I AM your Provider.

God is seen from Genesis 1, “In the beginning God…” through Revelation 22, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” as the source of all things, and that by Him all things are created, sustained, and for His ultimate glory. “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” Romans 11:36, “God that made the world and all things therein… For in him we live, and move, and have our being…” Acts 17:24 & 28.

The natural progression of such thinking is that man is a poor beggar before Almighty God, which is why Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3

Unless men understand their true state, which is needy and dependent upon God for everything, pride will surely be their undoing.

Christian, what do you depend on God for?