In This Issue:
Just Enough
Little Is Much When God Is in It
God Provided
Matthew 6:25-34
God’s Ravens
Volume: 994 February 17, 2025
Theme: God’s Provision
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After two months of being led out of bondage in Egypt, the people of Israel complained (Exodus 16:2) about not having the food they liked. They ignored the fact of being mistreated in slavery, God had delivered them from their bondage, and they daily saw God’s leadership and provision as they traveled through the wilderness. God heard their complaints but still met their needs.
God rained “bread” from Heaven every morning for the people. The sweet, small bread was also called “the corn of Heaven” and angel’s food (Psalms 78:24-25).
Six days a week, the manna rained down. There was just enough for every man, woman, and child to eat. Each family gathered what they could eat, about one omer (3.6 liters). After the sun burned hot, there was no manna left. The manna melted. They had just enough for that day!
If the people did not trust that God would provide the “bread” the next day and tried to hoard it, it would stink and turn to worms. They had no choice but to trust God would provide their daily needs. To compound God’s miracle of provision, on the day before the Sabbath, when they were not to work, God rained down a two-day supply of manna. The bread gathered that day would last two days. God gave them just enough food every day for 40 years until they ate corn in the land (Joshua 5:12) that God had led them to.
Throughout the Bible there are examples of God’s meeting the needs of His own. Jacob had a son, Joseph, in the right position to provide his family with food during a drought. God provided just enough food to meet all of Israel’s needs when they were in the wilderness. The widow’s miraculously refilling barrel of meal and the cruse of oil were just enough to meet Elijah’s and the widow’s needs. Jesus told the disciples to reach the world with the Gospel and not carry anything extra. In all cases, God provided just enough. They were not to have extra because they were to trust God and see what He would do for them daily.
Man’s distrusting nature relies too often on his provision. There needs to be a correct balance between saving for a “rainy day” and amassing as much as possible because he thinks only he can provide. We are to be wise and good stewards of what we have, but not dependent only on what we do. It is often forgotten that God wants us to trust him for everything, including our daily needs.
Most people have long forgotten, or never given any thought or trust, that God is the one that ultimately provides all we have. It is not the government’s food stamps or its welfare that we should rely on. It is not our big barns of storage, as the “fool” in Luke 12:16-21 trusted in. It would not take much for a government to collapse, especially these days, or “barns” of investments or savings accounts to fail, and then where would those people who were relying on themselves be?
My wife and I have learned long ago that God will meet our daily needs. We saved what we could, sometimes only ten dollars a week, and have been frugal with our purchases, but still tithed (gave to the Lord through the local church).
We soon learned that God honored His promises and did provide our “daily bread” (Mat. 6:11). We have always had enough to pay our bills.
When we desperately needed housing, God gave us just enough money from an insurance claim to fix up an old house. When our house desperately needed paint, the paint I found was just enough to cover the job and just “happened” to be the right color.
Without planning, I purchased seeds for the garden, which were just enough to cover the available space. Repair jobs around the house are often met by having just enough materials lying around the house.
Food prepared is just enough to meet the needs of all the unexpected guests who drop in for dinner. The clothes given to us just happened to fit exactly our sizes.
On and on, I could go of 40+ years of God’s precise provision. Sometimes, we had a little extra, only to find, in a couple of days, that it would be just enough to replace a damaged tire or meet the needs of another emergency. After thousands of examples of just having enough, we quickly learned it was not a coincidence but God’s provision.
If we had had a surplus, we may not have been reliant and appreciative of God’s provision. If we had had everything we wanted, we may have been like the wealthy man I once visited. After I told him the Bible’s plan of salvation, he looked me in the face and said, “Look around. Do you see all I have?” He did have a large mansion, cars, and other splendid things. “Does it look like I need God?” He needed to know that God had provided, not himself. Without God’s help, he may not have the health or the intellect to earn that money. People like that who have such self-trust often have to, and do, lose all they have to find out Who really is in control.
Today’s world has become more dependent on their own devices or government aid, including Christians! Unfortunately, those provisions frequently let those who trust them down. The ways of man are not trustworthy nor always reliable. God, however, will never let his own down that trust in Him. Rely on God to provide. He may give you just enough, but it will be He that you will reliably trust on. You will then see what the mighty hand of God will do in your life.
“And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” Mat. 21:22
“And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” I John 3:22
“When you’re down to nothing, God may be up to something.”
Little Is Much When God Is in It
Hymn by Kittie J. Suffield
In the harvest field now ripened,
There’s a work for all to do.
Hark, the voice of God is calling,
To the harvest calling you.
CHORUS:
Little is much when God is in it.
Labor not for wealth or fame.
There’s a crown and you can win it,
If you go in Jesus’ name.
Does the place you’re called to labor
Seem so small and little known?
It is great if God is in it,
And He’ll not forget His own.
CHORUS:
When the conflict here is ended
And our race on Earth is run,
He will say, if we are faithful,
“Welcome home, my child, well done.”
CHORUS:
“God strengthens shoulders to bear the burden.”
- Abraham’s knife lifted up to kill his son; an angel appeared.
- Lot was near destruction; angels intervened.
- Hagar and her son were dying; an angel showed them water.
- Moses was trapped from escaping his enemy by the sea: God parted the waters.
- Rabshakeh insulted God; his army was destroyed in twelve hours.
- Haman formed a plot to kill Jews; the king could not sleep and read what Mordecai had done for him. Because of his discovery, Mordecai and, eventually, the Jewish people were spared.
- Peter was in jail; angels released him.
“Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
“Worry is irreverent — God will provide!”
Having read the story of how God fed Elijah by the ravens with his mother, a little boy sat on a wintry night in a fireless room beside a bare table. With a simple, child-like trust, he asked his widowed mother if he might set the door open for God’s ravens to come in.
“I feel sure they must be on their way,” he said. The trustful mother granted the request.
The mayor of the German town, passing by, was curious by the sight of the open door and entered, inquiring why it was open. When he learned the reason, he said, “I will be God’s raven!” He met their needs then and long afterward.
“Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.” Psalms 37:3-5
“What God ordains, He sustains!” — Author Unknown