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Recognizing God's Provision

by Jerry Ousley  
12/04/2015 / Christian Living

I've got a bad habit. I have tried to work on it and I have made progress, but still, after thirty-eight years of marriage, I fail to see the housework that Deb has done. I've been gone all day returning home tired and simply wanting to sit down and rest, while Deb has spent the day dusting, cleaning, and putting everything in order. It's because she keeps the house clean that I fail to recognize all the hard work she has put into it.

That, of course gets me into trouble. I understand her position. After spending three hours or so mowing and trimming the yard, I love it when she says, "It really looks good, honey." It gives me a satisfaction when someone has recognized my effort. So why shouldn't she feel the same way? I try to be more observant and as I said I have made progress, but there are still times I backslide and find myself once again sitting with my big foot in my mouth. Some days I wonder why I don't just stick it in my mouth at the start of the day and get it over with before anything happens.

In the same pattern of thought, we need to develop the habit of recognizing God's provision. Sometimes we get so used to His provision that we simply take it for granted. We grow lax in praising our Lord for His daily supply that He so lovingly and freely provides. Hear the words of 2 Peter 1:4, "By which have been given us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." God, in His word, has made us many promises and He won't fail us in a single one.

But some of us might be thinking, "I know that there are a lot of promises found in the Bible. But when I try to claim one of them it just doesn't seem to happen." In order to completely understand this passage of scripture we need to read it in its full context. The quoted text begins with the words "by which" indicating that these promises originate from something. By examining the verse above it (verse 3) we discover that it is by His knowledge. So what we are being told is that these exceedingly great and precious promises are given to us by the knowledge of God. We say that God is omniscient. That's a big word that tells us that God is all knowing. He knows everything. There's not one topic man has tackled that God doesn't already know. Talk about a genius!

God's provision by His promises comes through His knowledge. He knows what is best for us when we don't. We may think that our answer will come in a big pile of money, or in a successful career. Sometimes God grants those things. When we pray, asking for God's help He wants to answer our prayers but in His knowledge He has looked into the future and knows how our request will affect us. He knows if great wealth will actually corrupt us. And He knows exactly what the right solution is to our problem. He will answer our requests but He will do so in His knowledge and will apply the promise that best fits the answer we need.

But back to recognizing His provision; each and every day God does something for us. We grow so accustomed to it that we often fail to acknowledge that it comes from Him. Oh, we'll probably be quick to praise Him for those big things, but it's the small, everyday, blessings that we fail to see. My brother told me about a time he was hauling a big load on his pickup truck. The truck had always been reliable, but on his trip home, right in the middle of the highway it spit, spattered, and puttered to a stop. He was able to maneuver it off the road but was baffled as to what had happened. He checked under the hood and everything was okay. It hadn't overheated, had plenty of oil and gas and it seemed that there was no apparent reason for it to quit like that. He climbed back into the cab and tried to start it again and to his amazement it started right up. He was able to make the trip home and to this day hasn't had another problem with it.

He told me that after thinking about it he knew that it had to be God. Perhaps up the road a mile or two there was someone pulling out onto the highway and God stalled his truck to keep him (and the other party) from being in a serious accident. Who knows what may have happened? The neat thing is that he recognized God's provision. Begin looking closely at the things that happen in your life. Grow to realize that God is with you each and every step of the day and get into the habit of recognizing God's provision.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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