Provision part 3
There's a big difference between needs and wants. Believe it or not. What we want, in fact, is very rarely what we need. Keep this in mind when I show you my memory verse for today: "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19). And there's a couple of important things here. The first thing is, Paul wasn't even talking about HIS need. He was talking about YOUR need. He wasn't boasting about what God had done for him... well, in a way he was. Because he was able to tell the church in Philipi that God would supply their need BECAUSE God had supplied his need. A witness tells people what they've witnessed. And its powerful because they've actually witnessed it. When you have a PHD--personally have done it--you KNOW what you're talking about. A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument. So that's the first thing. Paul was talking from experience in order to edify others. And the second thing is that all important word: NEED. It is number 5532 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "employment, that is, an affair; also (by implication) occasion, demand, requirement or destitution." Get it? The requirements of life. Like food, water, air... or the means (employment) to get by. People always WANT a handout, when what they NEED is to work. Paul wrote in another place, "For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat" (2 Thessalonians 3:10). Paul wrote all the time about how he didn't want to be a burden to the church. He was a tent maker, right? He wanted to pay his own way. And working is HOW God provided his need. I'm very thankful to have my job. Its hard. Its exhausting. But it allows me to take care of my kid in the best way that I can right now. Its a blessing. Its provision. I NEED to take care of Logan and be on his schedule for days off and whatnot. God provided my need. But there seems to be this attitude of INgratitude. This attitude of entitlement. Where we think everything should be handed to us. Where we think we don't need to do anything, and should just get everything. Now, listen, that IS the way it works in the Spirit. You can't make perfect in the flesh what was started in the Spirit. Its not about Spiritual jumping jacks and jumping through hoops and trying to be someone you're not in order to get something you think you haven't got. Its about being who you are by knowing who you are. Rest is not inactivity, it is Holy Spirit directed activity. And the Holy Spirit only ever directs us to love. So look at it like this: If God WANTS us to love... and He always provides us with whatever He expects from us... He must first love us. Oh, which is what 1 John 4:19 says, "We love him, because he first loved us." He HAS supplied all our need by loving us. By giving us everything we need. By giving us the means to live. Because to live is to love and to love is live. He loved us, so we could live a life of love by loving Him back... by loving each other!