All I Have Needed, Thy Hand Hath Provided
God does not promise to provide all our whims and fancies but He does promise to provide all of our needs. David said, “I have never seen the righteous forsaken or His seed begging bread” (Psalm 37:5). I am so grateful that, as poor as I have been at times, I have never gone without food. Even before I surrendered my life to Him, His hand was on me, providing for my needs.
Many times, we confuse needs with wants. Whenever I’m not receiving something that I think is a necessity, I remind myself that maybe it’s not in reality. Maybe it is just something that would bring me ease but which God doesn’t think I need right now. At the same time, I trust Him because He knows what is best for me. He desires me to spend eternity with Him, and He will lead me and guide me in the way I should go until I am more like Him. He truly is a wonderful Savior!
Sorry, but sometimes God does not give us something we genuinely need. I can cite a couple of specific examples in my life where he did not provide something I desperately needed. I ended up nearly committing suicide and spent time in a psychiatric ward. What I needed to avoid that was never provided. That wasn’t a want, it was a need and God failed me in the time of my greatest crisis. Although out of the hospital I have never recovered and have been unable to forgive God for forsaking me.
Hello Jeff,
Friend, it is obvious that you have been hurting for a long time. I also know the agony of not receiving what I thought I needed and there is more than one time, the black dog of depression (as Martin Luther called it) has snuck up on from behind and laid me so low that I thought I would never be able to rise enough to even get another breath. My chest would heave with emotion and I would wonder where God was in the midst of my deepest trials.
However, I had to learn some valuable truths that have helped me arrive at the point I am today. I hope and will pray, as will other readers here I’m sure, that you will give consideration to what I share. If you wish to speak further with me or make other comments, you are more than welcome to do so. I have been in the ministry for 20 years and would be happy to share more how the Lord brought me through this.
In the meantime, allow me to share this. First, there is the blessed truth that God is God and I am not. This means that I must trust that He alone is sovereign. When all falls around us, He is still in control. While He is in control, this does not mean that He will not permit difficulties into our lives. All the turmoil that is found in the world is ultimately a result of sin having entered the world. That sin separates man from God but God, from before time itself began, made a way possible for man to be restored in fellowship to Himself. He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to become sin for us. This means the very worst of me was placed on Jesus, so that the very best of Jesus could be placed on me – and on everyone who ever places their faith in Christ alone by grace through faith alone in the finished work of the cross.
Jeff, when I began to realize the wonder of such a God doing that for the likes of me, my depression and anxieties began to get smaller in the reality of how great God truly is. Because God is God and He cannot sin, there is nothing that we can forgive God for. He has done nothing wrong, but we have. God never fails and He always answers our prayers. The problem is that we do not always like His answers. If God always gave us what we demanded, we would actually have no need for God.
I do not know who you are, but God does. That you are still alive is a testimony to the grace, mercy, love, and patience of a holy God. He has not permitted you to take your life. He wants you to know the wonder of what it means to truly trust in Him and accept His way in your life. It may not be what you want or even what you like, but it will bring Him the most glory and honor.
One final thought, King David in the Old Testament prophesied of an event we know as the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This is found in Psalm 22. In that beautiful passage, the prophecy found its fulfillment when Jesus cried from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” For the first and only time in the history of the world, the very Son of God was forsaken by God the Father. Why? Because, Jesus became sin for us. Nobody would ever have to suffer being forsaken by God like Jesus endured so that we might have eternal life.
Again, I hope and pray this will bring some encouragement and you are welcome to reply.
Dear Jeff: First of all, I want to thank you for taking the time to comment on my blog. As soon as I read your comment, I sent up a prayer on your behalf. After reading your comment, I wonder if I am painting a picture that seems too good to be true. That is not my intention. The purpose of my blog is to lift up the downtrodden and comfort the lonely, so I’m grateful that you are reading my blog, although it seems I have failed to encourage you thus far.
My life has not been all sunshine and roses either but it’s because of the hard times in life that I am grateful for my Father. In hindsight, I know that He never left me and that His plans for me were good and not evil.
Trials can make a person better, not bitter. I pray you will not let bitterness eat at you. Mark mentioned some of what Jesus went through on the cross. I often remind myself that, if He never does another thing for me, He has already done so much!
I will continue to pray for you as God brings you to mind. As the old song says, I hope you will “reach out to Jesus; He’s reaching out to you.”
I appreciate your compassion and concern. However, I do not believe for a moment that God has any clue who I am or what I need. I had a horrible life before I accepted Christ in 2000. And then my life got WORSE! I lost my marriage, lost my career, and lost my mind, spending time in a psychiatric hospital. This is my reward for accepting Jesus? I understand there will be challenges in life. I’m not asking for perfection, but is a balance between good and bad unreasonable? I didn’t ask to be born, I’m not the one who created me imperfect, but I’m the one who has to suffer the consequences of the fallen world? How is that fair? What did I do? The whole rest of my family has had nearly perfect lives, rising to wealth and influence. It’s as if all negative for the entire family is focused into my life. I no longer trust God. He speaks fancy words, but action is all that matters, and until HE works to change my circumstances (they aren’t things I control), I can’t trust Him. Trust is earned, not given, especially after it is lost.
The whole idea that anyone would be thankful for the “bad” or “tragic” times in their lives is a completely foreign and unimaginable concept to me. I have never had anything “good” come out of the bad things I’ve endured during my 50 years. And don’t even try to talk to me about “God won’t give us more than we can handle” or “that he works everything to His good”. Is losing me because of his mistreatment of me part of His “good”?
And God has done me wrong. First, he created me and placed me in this world without my agreement. I would have said no. Then, he created me imperfect and put me in a world where imperfect brings nothing but pain and suffering. That is not love, it is not right, it certainly isn’t moral. He may answer prayers for some, but not me, certainly never in my favor. The answer is ALWAYS no! And I don’t pray for wealth, fame or influence. It’s actually being treated like this that leads people like me to the place where we don’t need Him. If this isn’t being forsaken, then you don’t understand the meaning of the word.
You alluded to speaking to me. I’m not sure what that means, but I’d be interested. I haven’t given up completely (though I am very close to walking away completely) and I try to keep an open mind.
Jeff, I would never use those two verses without putting them into context. 1 Cor. 10:13 is not about God only giving us what we can handle. He will take us, as His children, to the point where our strength is exhausted, then He will go beyond that so that we MUST lean on Him for daily strength. If He only took us as far as we could handle, then why would we need to look to God? Rom. 8:28 has a condition behind it – all things do work together for good but it is only for those who love God. Those who love God obey His commandments. Further, when we love God, we will see that He has not just set His love upon us but made it possible to be more like the Lord Jesus Christ.
May I present a different outlook on what it means for bad things to happen. There was a time when all was perfect. God had need of nothing – no stars, no moon, no sun, no earth, no angels, and certainly, no humans. He created them all for His glory and He left the command that man was not to eat of one particular tree. Of course, man willfully disobeyed and deliberately rebelled against God. Then that God, of His own will, chose to send His perfect Son. That Son came and condescended to be made into human flesh. He grew up, had a 3 year ministry, and then was put to death in one of the most cruel means known to man in all of history.
You speak of an imperfect life and how bad things are. It is true you did not ask to be born. You have lost everything that was special to you. Have you considered the words of Jesus that we must be willing to give up everything, including life, in order to be His disciples? The servant is not greater than His master.
My friend, I am afraid that too often I, as you seem to be, have been caught up in thinking that my life is all about me and what I can get out of life. I have had great jobs making a lot of money and have lost it all. I had great health and lost it in just a matter of months. In Liberia, we were serving the Lord but were brought to complete loss of health for myself and my little adopted daughter. We were even to the point that we held our daughter wondering whether she would make it through the night.
Jeff, if the ONLY thing God had given to us was the gift of His Son, He would have been more than merciful, gracious, and loving. He promises nothing to us except that He would provide clothing and food. Everything else is an abundant blessing. The reward for accepting Jesus has NOTHING to do with this life. This is the sad aspect of the false teaching of so many tele-evangelists that if you will but “trust Jesus” that He will give you your best life now. This is not Biblical.
I could take you to the jungles of West Africa where my Christian brothers had nothing but what they wore every day. I was there when they buried their family members and still rejoiced that they were worthy to suffer for the sake of Jesus. After all He has done for us, how in the world could we possibly demand that He give us something to make our life better? What if He were to bring tribulation and persecution and we became a martyr for Christ? Who are we to demand from the Creator of all creation that He bow to our wants?
Sovereignty means that God can do whatever He wants with whoever He wants for whatever purpose He wishes to accomplish, namely, to bring honor and glory to His name alone. For the Christian, this world is but a shadowland of what is to come. We are passing through and should be striving to lay up treasures in heaven, not here on earth.
What should it profit a person if they should gain everything in this life (perfect lives, wealth, marriage, etc.), and yet, then go on to lose their soul?
Jeff, you may choose to walk away from God, but you cannot get away from His purposes for your life. Nobody can promise you a life of ease but we do have the promise of God’s Word as Paul stated, “That to live is for Christ, but to die is gain.” What a joy to one day stand in the presence of God who loved us enough that He would not leave us alone! If He were to leave you alone for even one moment, you would be crushed under the weight of trying to make it apart from God. That would be a lonely place to be and is actually part of what it will be like to be separated from Him forever in eternity if our faith is not in Him alone.
Does anyone care that GOD is the one who created everything imperfect? Does anyone understand that HE was the one who created man imperfectly and KNEW ahead of time that this imperfection would bring us nothing but pain and suffering? Do you KNOWINGLY bring pain and suffering to your children? I don’t! And I don’t consider that loving. So obviously, I can say I don’t have much love for God. And sometimes He goes beyond breaking you, He obliterates you and there is nothing left and you no longer exist except in a physical sense.
He created us “to love Him” and then creates a situation that is anything but loving? Is it any wonder why people like me think He only created us for His own amusement? And then He picks favorites. Some get everything they ever wanted and some get absolutely nothing. And then we’re supposed to praise and worship Him? Just because He is? Not good enough!
The servant may not be greater than the master, but the master isn’t so great either! People like to point out that the pot isn’t greater than the potter. But do you blame the pot if it is originally created with a large hole that leaks or is it the creators responsibility for creating a flawed pot?
I too have had 2 daughters near death at birth, so that argument doesn’t work on me. And when all you’re doing is trying to survive and not kill yourself, you have no choice but to be “all about me”. Anything else is a luxury, especially when you have nobody with you to partner through this.
Why would I want to go spend eternity with a God that has stood by and watched life abuse me? Really? Why? I have nothing more than words in a book that say this will be better. But what of my experience with Him here? That doesn’t matter? I’m supposed to be joyful that I can spend eternity with a God that wasn’t there for me when I needed Him most here? Sure.
Your right about His sovereignty. But I WAS NOT ASKED MY PERMISSION. That makes me nothing more than His slave. Not acceptable. And if I walk away from Him because he allows me to have nothing but suffering, how does that bring anything good to the world? Bring glory to Him? So if I walk away, what does that mean my purpose is? Since He knows all in advance, He had to know I would walk away, right? So what does that say about what His “good” purpose was? Couldn’t have been a good one, now could it?
And I’m tired of being told He doesn’t leave us alone. He has stayed away from me for most of my life, certainly the last 8 years. I don’t fear Hell because that’s where I’ve been living my entire life, even after accepting Christ!
Good morning Jeff,
Part of the problem here is that you are seeking to use human intellect to understand a holy God. God cannot be tempted with evil, nor does He tempt anybody to do evil.
In the beginning, God did create everything perfect. There was no sin, and both Adam and Eve had the ability to please God in all they did. Did He know ahead of time that sin would bring nothing but pain and suffering? Yes, of course, He did, because He is God. However, you fail in your thinking if you believe that God knowingly brought that to His creation. He warned Adam and Eve what would happen if they obeyed and what would happen if they disobeyed. It was their own sin and rebellion against the holiness of God that allowed these the horrors of this world to take place.
Jeff, have you ever considered the alternative to your statement. Is it possible that God has allowed you to lose everything and have nothing left so that you will finally be brought to the point where you will ultimately realize and accept that you are nothing apart from Him dwelling in your life?
Yes, He did create us to love Him, but because of our sin nature inherited all the way down from Adam, it is impossible to love God until we have been made a new creation in Christ Jesus. This is why Jesus came to be victorious over sin, hell, and the fear of the grave.
You miss the entire point of God if you think that God owes you anything or that He becomes a better God because He needs something you have to offer. You and I do not add anything to God. He is the Eternal One who is self-sufficient and self-existent apart from anything He has created.
Sir, I recognize what it means to be in the depths of despair, but I can assure you that suicide is not, nor has it ever been the answer. That is but a permanent solution to a temporary problem. In fact, to attempt to take our lives when it is God alone who has the right to give and take life, is to slap away the longsuffering and patience of a God who longs for fellowship with His creation. Suicide is a result of a person thinking too highly of themselves instead of thinking on the grace, mercy, and love of God. Do you fail to realize that apart from God that you could not even take your next breath or even read this sentence?
If God really removed Himself from your little world, you would be dead. You and I cannot exist apart from Him. The problem with us humans is we want to take God and make Him into a little image of our own design, throw Him in a box, and when He doesn’t fit, we want to blame Him for all of our problems. He is not the problem, we are.
Regardless of whether you try to walk away from Him or not, your life will bring glory and honor to the triune God of all creation. And because He is God, He does not have to, nor will He ever, ask your permission to do anything. That is what sovereignty means. For a simple example, I am a dual citizen of both the UK and the USA (by birth). In England, the Queen is the Sovereign of the land. She does not, never has, and never will, ask my permission to sit on the throne or to rule the land. God owes you and I nothing, but He blesses us with what He desires us to have.
As for God and evil, if God created “everything”, that has to include evil, otherwise he didn’t create “everything” and what he says thus becomes a lie. Therefore, even if he doesn’t individually bring evil to harm us, he allows it. Thus he is equally culpable. Why is he absolved of responsibility for the negative side effects of something He created?
He ALREADY knew that Adam and Eve would disobey. If He already knew this, was it really their decision, since it was already decided by God to happen? So HE created that situation. He is only free of responsibility if He did not know what would happen. Can he be surprised? If we, or God, knowingly create something dangerous or wrong, we should be held responsible. Christians often talk about accountability, but we don’t demand it of God. That is a crock.
You wonder if God allowed a crummy life with the desire to bring me closer to Him. If he really knows me (which you and God both say He does) then he would have known that would not work on me! I was created with a personality (by God no less!) that does not allow growing closer to somebody (or God) who hurts me. So, evidently He doesn’t know me very well and certainly doesn’t understand me. Otherwise, He would’ve known to NEVER ask me to do that. I am, by my creation, psychologically, emotionally, spiritually incapable of that. I will never become closer to a person or God who knowingly does me harm or ALLOWS me to be harmed. So that is an argument that cannot be made.
If life is a “gift” of God, is it not my right to do with it as I please? If not, then it isn’t a real gift, is it? As for “do you fail to realize that apart from God that you could not even take your next breath or even read this sentence?” all I can do is say GREAT! If I upset him with my contempt for his character, please, take my last breath from me. It’s better than pretending that God is of loving and good character, because HE is NOT! Suicide is not “thinking to highly of myself” it is the desire to be free from pain and rejection. By the way, I am not contemplating suicide, I’ve promised family members I wouldn’t. And unlike God, I’m a man of my word. However, I wish every moment of the day that God would decide He’s had enough and let me pass out of this corrupt world, a corrupt world created by a God supposedly unable to even consider corruptness.
I AM NOT THE PROBLEM. THE THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED TO ME WERE NOT OF MY CHOICE. THEY WERE MADE BY OTHERS OR WERE EVENTS THAT COULD NOT BE ANTICIPATED INTO WHICH I WAS THRUST, NOT BY MY CHOICE, BUT BY GOD’S PLAN, REGARDLESS OF HOW PATHETIC AND IMMORAL THAT PLAN WAS.
You speak of sovereignty, but do the “subjects” not have the right and ability to rise up and overthrow a corrupt or wicked monarch? If not, we are not subjects, we are not partners, we are not “children”, we are SLAVES with absolutely no authority or freedom. And if He asks us to live (without our agreement or approval), why don’t we have the right to put some demands on Him? If we don’t, I wish for Him to rescind His decision to create me and free me from the burden of being subject to His whims.
There is no way my life brings glory to God. I’ve grown to hate Him and I will no longer encourage anyone to seek after Him, because I cannot in good conscience tell them life will be better with Him than without.
Blesses us with what He desires for us? Really? Seriously? You really want me to believe that I’m supposed to feel blessed for a life (50 years) of depression and suffering? Is He not supposed to care about what we care about? Oh, only what He wants us to care about? Which is it, it can’t be both!
He gives no thought to the things to which I give thought. He cares nothing about the details of my life, otherwise he would have changed the circumstances. I bought this lie when I accepted Christ, but my life since then is concrete proof that, while God may exist, He does not care about me, I’m just another notch on his post counting the number of converts.
Jeff, you said,
“You speak of sovereignty, but do the “subjects” not have the right and ability to rise up and overthrow a corrupt or wicked monarch? If not, we are not subjects, we are not partners, we are not “children”, we are SLAVES with absolutely no authority or freedom. And if He asks us to live (without our agreement or approval), why don’t we have the right to put some demands on Him? If we don’t, I wish for Him to rescind His decision to create me and free me from the burden of being subject to His whims.”
You are so close to the truth of what has happened, yet you ascribe the blame to a holy and righteous God. It is not the monarch who is corrupt and wicked, but the subjects. In the beginning, they had everything and rebelled. And, it is also true that we have no authority or freedom to please God in anyway because we are born with sin.
Yes, the Bible makes it clear that we are slaves to a Master. Either we are a slave to sin or we are a slave to Christ. There is no middle ground. We have no right to demand anything from God though. This is the product of worldly thinking. Unlike the poor illustration I used of a British monarch, the God of all creation has no impurities and therefore, He cannot be overthrown.
You cannot be uncreated anymore than you had a choice in being created in the first place. And yet, despite your rebellion (and mine) against this holy and loving God, we each have the responsibility to follow Christ or to continue enjoying our sin in rebellion against Him and face the consequences. If God was only just, He would destroy every person who ever sinned the first time they sinned. If God was only loving, there would be no punishment for sin. However, He is just AND loving; therefore, somebody had to pay the penalty for the sins that would be committed. Either you will have to pay or you can accept the most loving gift ever offered to a sinful person and that is Jesus Christ.
We will continue to pray that God will reveal Himself to your troubled heart and soul.
Is it just to put us in a life we had no choice in? We have no choice, so why are we the one’s who have to suffer? Let his justice come, then, and destroy us all.