I would like to focus on a thought the Holy Spirit shared with me this week and examine it in closer detail. God is so good and faithful to His children and as I was praying for wisdom and direction for this week’s blog entry, this is what was impressed upon me: In order for God to fully provide for us, we must fully provide ourselves to Him.
Immediately following this thought I recalled a verse of scripture, Matthew 6:33, which says:
But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to (provided for) you. (NASB)
By the fact that this scripture immediately followed the thought I knew that it was from God and that I needed to share it.
On a basic level, all of us enjoy the blessings of life, whether we know God and acknowledge Him or not. But according to our thought for today and the scripture verse that goes along with it, certain things will only be provided once we have begun to seek Him first, over and above all else. Does that mean that God will withhold certain things from His children when they do not seek Him and do not put him first? Yes, I believe that is exactly what it means and once again we can go to scripture to look for examples.
“But I gave you also cleanness of teeth in all your cities
And lack of bread in all your places,
Yet you have not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.
“Furthermore, I withheld the rain from you
While there were still three months until harvest.
Then I would send rain on one city
And on another city I would not send rain;
One part would be rained on,
While the part not rained on would dry up. (Amos 4:6-7) NASB
Notice, God withheld rain and there was a lack of food because His people were in rebellion and would not turn back to Him. Rain is necessary for water to drink for all living things and without it food becomes scarce. Rain and the water it brings can be thought of as the most basic and critical necessity for life and God alone is responsible for its abundance or lack thereof.
Our verse in Amos was in the past but what about in the future? Does the Bible have anything to say that would indicate God could use this type of withholding again? Yes, it does, in fact.
Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them. (Zechariah 14:16-17)
Zechariah chapter 14 is prophecy. It speaks about a day that has not yet come to pass and verses 16 and 17 are thought to take place after the 2nd coming of Jesus. So if God withheld provision in the form of rain and water from His people in the past and will do so in the future then it does not take any stretch of the imagination to believe that He is doing so now. And if He will do it for an entire nation or body of people then He will certainly do it for us as individuals. To turn around the thought we started with, if we are withholding ourselves from God and seeking after other things then we can expect God to begin withholding certain things from us and before too much time has passed we will begin to find ourselves in need.
As children of God, we should know that He is generous and desires to give abundantly. It is never His desire to withhold from us and to see us in lack or in need. We have a responsibility to stay in the place where God can bless us and He can only do so when we are actively seeking Him. To find healing and renewal for ourselves, for our families and for our country we must turn our eyes and hearts towards Jesus our savior and cry out to Him. Only He can provide what we so desperately need.