God will provide.

God will provide.

God will provide.

These past few weeks i have been praying for a big opportunity to help someone. I knew what i was getting myself into, because if you pray for things like opportunities, or faith, or for God to break you down, you better be ready for it. It’s going to be crazy, guaranteed. 

Anyway, today i got it. I don’t want to go into detail, because the Bible says not to boast about good works, so i’ll just say that it involves groceries and homeless people, and putting faith in God to handle my money, instead of putting faith in me to handle my money. 

I prayed for an opportunity for God to use me to provide for someone, and i got that. 

And now i am freaking out about how i am going to get groceries. Seriously?!? I just saw God provide for Kenny (the homeless man i met) and his family. Seriously? He just had a stroke. He’s homeless. But, God is providing for him. You know how usually when people have strokes they can become partially paralyzed? Not Kenny. God provided. Who was worrying about groceries? Hint: not Kenny. I was worrying about groceries. I am still worrying about groceries.

It’s so hard to believe that God will provide for me personally, and so easy to trust that He will provide for others. I always pray for God to provide for others, but i never pray that He would provide for me. I don’t know why i do that. The Bible doesn’t say “God will provide for everyone except for Kara”. 

But it does say this:

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

(Matthew 6:25-34 ESV)

Why are we so bad at remembering that? People only talk about that passage, like… i don’t know, ALL THE TIME. There’s probably a reason. 

I’m not writing this to bring attention to me or to say “look how awesome and giving i am”, and if you think i am, then i sincerely apologise. The only reason i can do this is because of God working through me. We cannot do anything good apart from God, so everything good is attributed to Him. The only reason i wrote this is to show that God is our provider. And to remind me how that includes me, too. 

Philippians 4:19

So, I just submitted an application to a camp. I figured this would be a good time to write about trusting God. 

The hardest thing about trusting God, to me and presumably many others, is that God’s plans are WEIRD. Seriously. Every single one of God’s plans seems so weird to us humans. Why? Because we are constrained to one situation and one life, our own, and we have trouble understanding how things could play out in the future. 

I’ve applied to camps in the past, and have never gotten a job at one, so what makes me think i have a chance now? God told me to. Yes, you read that right. God. Told. Me. To. Apply. I know, i know, that sounds really weird. The thing is, God speaks to people now. And God happens to have a voice in my head that sounds a lot like my dad or Jeff. God speaking and performing miracles isn’t just reserved for 2000 years ago. He speaks NOW. Miracles happen NOW. Once we believe that we begin to live life in a different way, and trust God to provide instead of trusting ourselves.

Now, what happens if God tells me to do something but it doesn’t go through? I don’t really know. It’s part of His plan though. I could turn in this application, have an interview, and not get hired. If that happens, i will have no idea why i went through with the whole thing, but i know there would have been a reason for it.

The thing is, we just have to trust God, that His plans are better than ours. We must listen carefully for His voice.

1 Thessalonians 5:24
He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. 

Numbers 11:23
And the LORD said to Moses, “Is the LORD’s hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.” 

Isaiah 55:8
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. 

Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.