Miracles of Provision

Howard Hendricks, professor emeritus at Dallas Theological Seminary, told a story about a couple in Christian ministry here in Dallas who had four children. While things were financially rough, Timmy, the youngest, asked, “Dad, do you think Jesus would mind if I asked for a shirt?” “Well, of course not,” his father replied. 

So every day at supper, they prayed for a shirt. Several weeks later, the mother received a call from a local merchant who inquired, “Could you use some boys’ shirts?” “How many do you have?” she asked hesitantly. He said, “Twelve.” That night, when Timmy began to pray for a shirt, his father said, “We don’t have to pray for the shirt, Timmy. The Lord has answered your prayer.” 

On cue, his older brother Tom went out of the room and brought back a shirt. Timmy’s eyes were as big as saucers. Then he went out again and brought back another, and another…until he had piled 12 shirts on the table. Timmy thought God had gone into the shirt business! Today, there is a young man named Tim who believes that God can provide superabundantly, beyond anything we could ever ask for or imagine.  

Do you believe in a God who can do that?

One of the most well-known names for God in the Old Testament is Jehovah Jire—“the God who provides. That name is rooted in the story from Genesis 22 in which Abraham was prepared to offer his son Issac as a sacrifice, and at the last moment God provided a substitute for Issac—a ram caught in the thicket. God has provided us with what we all need most—someone to save us from our sins.

That’s without doubt our greatest need. But God also provides for other needs we have—physical, emotional, and financial—and that’s what we are going to look at today as we examine what the Bible teaches about experiencing miracles of God’s provision.

1. Our Need for God’s Provision

Sometimes you see the providence of God in the rearview mirror—in hindsight, after the fact. And sometimes you see the providence of God stretching out before you, like a straight road with road signs along the way. That was the case in my desire to follow God’s will regarding our building project. However, if God chooses to invade our lives, we can rest assured He will care for our needs.

Because He made us, God, more than anyone (including ourselves), knows exactly what we need and when we need it. The Lord knows there are certain necessities not only for sustaining life but also for thriving in life. I’ve identified three broad provisions we all experience.

• Physical Provision: Our need for food, clothes, and shelter. 
• Financial Provision
• Relational Provision: Someone to love and a place to belong.

2. The Promise of God’s Provision (Psalm 145:14-16)

None of the human needs we’ve discussed thus far will come as a surprise to you. Yet, many times, people are surprised by and skeptical of God’s promise to provide for these very real needs. 

We don’t know when David composed Psalm 145:14-16. The title gives us no clue; it simply says “A Psalm of Praise, of David.” In this psalm, David praised God for His miracles, His mercy and grace, His everlasting kingdom, and His attention to those who cry out for provision. From the first to the last verse, David affirmed that God is in control and can be counted on to meet our needs.

3. The Principles of God’s Provision

Scripture points to at least three principles we should adopt when we’re looking for God’s divine invasions in providing for our needs.

• The Principle of A.S.K. (Matthew 7:7-8)

We need to follow the A.S.K. principle that James’ half-brother, Jesus, taught: Ask, Seek, and Knock. In the Greek language, the verbs “ask,” “seek,” and “knock” are present imperatives, meaning we’re to continuously do what is commanded. We’re to keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking. Pray with persistence and boldness. 

• The Principle of Work (Deuteronomy 8:18; Proverbs 19:15, 20:4, 21:25-26, 2 Thessalonians 3:10)

God gives us the strength to generate money through our labor. We are created in the image of God. God is a worker, and we are to be workers.

Sometimes—again, not all the time, but many times —poverty and a lack of provision in our lives are the result of laziness or a lack of effort.  

• The Principle of Refuge (Psalm 34:8-10)

What does it mean to “take refuge?” If you’ve ever lived in an area prone to tornadoes like we did years ago, then you know what a storm cellar is. When the warning sirens sound, you quickly go to a place that is designed to withstand the destructive winds. In the first church I pastored, there was a building across the street from our parsonage with a basement that had been designated as a shelter.   

When the storm sirens started screaming (for some reason, it was always just as we were sitting down for dinner), we gathered our two little girls and headed across the street to the designated basement.  

Sometimes I would dread being packed in a small windowless room with a group of strangers, wondering what was or was not happening outside. 

So I would direct my family toward the basement while I stood outside on the street to see what was happening. I reasoned that I was close enough to the door to make it to the room in time if the situation took a turn for the worse. Maybe I was, and maybe I wasn’t. It was only when I was in the room, not near the room, that I was completely protected. Only when we completely trust in God to care for us are we really safe.  

As taking refuge in God brings God’s blessing, so does the fear of God. This isn’t the kind of fear we have of a root canal. Rather, it’s a sense of overwhelming reverence we have for the Lord, resulting in obedience to Him. When we fear the Lord, He provides everything we need when we need it.

• The Principle of Generosity (Philippians 4:15-19; 2 Corinthians 9:6-7)

Let’s be honest. Most of us would rather eat caviar instead of cabbage, wear Gucci instead of Goodwill, and drive a Mercedes instead of a Mazda. But God only promises to meet our needs, not our greed. He’s more than able to meet those needs because He has a storehouse of riches—that’s the idea behind the promise of Philippians 4:19.

Since His riches are limitless and lavish, He gives lavishly and limitlessly. The key passage on generosity, however, is 2 Corinthians 9. 

Paul illustrated the principle that God bestows blessings on us in proportion to the blessings we bestow on others with a farmer sowing his seed. If he “sows sparingly,” he will “reap sparingly” (v. 6). The farmer is free to sow as much or as little as he likes—doing “just as he has purposed in his heart” (v. 7). No one, not even the Lord, is telling you how generous you ought to be with your resources. 

That’s up to you. Just realize, the generosity of your hands starts with the generosity of your heart—and that’s what God is ultimately interested in. So, Paul said don’t be a sad giver (“grudgingly”), feeling sorrow for what you’re giving up; and don’t be a mad giver (“under compulsion”), feeling pressured to give. Rather, be a glad giver because the Lord “loves a cheerful giver” (v. 7). The Greek word  translated as “cheerful” in this verse is hilaron, from where we get our word “hilarious.”

God loves to bless hilarious givers who give generously to His work of spreading the Gospel throughout the world and who give generously to those who have greater needs than their own.