CHAPTER SIX: God Is Your Provider
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
MY BREAKTHROUGH BACK IN DECEMBER 2007 changed both my mind and my life. Scales of misunderstanding fell from my spiritual eyes, and I saw God in an entirely different way. He became more real to me. More present. More significant in my everyday life. My spiritual growth soared, yet I still had so much to learn and to experience.
What I now realize is that even though I had been a Christian for more than thirty years by that time, I was still a baby Christian. A carnal Christian. That’s what Paul called the immature believers in the church in Corinth.
I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal.
The Greek word translated “carnal” is sarkikos, which means “pertaining to the flesh,” “fleshly,” or “unregenerate.”[1] The word is derived from sarx, which means “flesh” or “of the body” as opposed to “of the spirit or the soul.”[2] These words can also reflect the notion of “from the human nature,” a nature which has a desire to follow the passions of the flesh and has a mind set on the natural way of thinking rather than on the spiritual way of thinking and believing.
Yes, I believed in God. I believed in Christ. I was saved and I was assured of eternal life. But I was still living too much from my “natural man” rather than my born-again spirit. I still depended too much on myself and not enough on God. I was still ignorant of much about living a spirit-led life. Galatians 5:25 gives us an important instruction: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” My spirit was born again. I had the Holy Spirit of God living in me. But I wasn’t walking in the Spirit the way Romans 8 tells us to do.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
I’m not talking about living a sinful life. I lived an upstanding life and I had a good reputation. I studied the Bible and even taught Bible study classes to children and adults. But I was still spiritually immature. I just didn’t know it—that is, until I began my journey in December 2007.
We grow in our faith over the years. And while we have periods of stability or even stagnation, where nothing much changes, we also have times when we make major shifts as God reveals more of Himself and His wisdom to us. Sometimes it takes a life challenge for us to be open enough—shocked enough—to receive the new and life-changing information and act on it.
It’s similar to people who haven’t taken their health seriously. They eat whatever they want whenever they want. They don’t worry about the ingredients in foods or if a meal has too much fat, salt, or sugar. If it’s satisfying to the taste buds, they eat it . . . and oftentimes they want more satisfaction, so they overeat. But then they have a health crisis. Their bodies can’t keep up with their poor eating habits, so their bodies go on strike. Type 2 diabetes. High blood pressure. High cholesterol. Heart attack. Stroke. Obesity. The health crisis serves as the catalyst that sets these individuals on a new course of discovery and change. They bring what was out of order into order. They take better care of their bodies, which then respond in a positive way with more energy, weight loss, and safe levels for their blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure.
In the same way, my financial crisis ignited my spiritual growth. I started to see God differently. I entered into a Kingdom-of-God understanding of Him. And one of the most notable shifts occurred when I stopped depending on myself and started seeing God as my Provider.
GOD THE PROVIDER
We’ve talked about the Bible being our ultimate authority for life, so we want to go to the Scriptures to see the truth about God and His provision for us. In Matthew 6, Jesus teaches about two types of dependency. He’s talking about money issues, stress, worry, and where we invest our trust and reliance.
No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
Therefore I say to you, do not worry 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, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Therefore do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Jesus is teaching some deep, profound truths here. Let’s take a close look at His words so we can hear Him with our spiritual ears, update our thinking, and then respond from our renewed minds.
First, Jesus says there are two places where we will place our love, loyalty, and service: either in God or in mammon, which is wealth personified with the characteristics of greed and covetousness. Most people think only the wealthy put their trust in money, but it’s clear from this passage that this isn’t the case.
Jesus is pointing out that when people worry about their livelihood, food, and clothing, they are placing their trust in money. Wealthy people don’t often need to worry about such trivial matters, but people of lesser means do. I did—and so I found myself in this passage. I don’t think I was greedy; in fact, I’ve always liked giving money to worthy causes and volunteering my time and talents. But I was crazy worried about my business, my money, my bills, my mortgage, and my future. I wasn’t trusting God to meet my needs, and I didn’t see God as my Provider. Instead, I focused on my bank balance. On the upcoming invoices. On the dark picture of my future that I painted in my mind.
Jesus tells his listeners not to worry, but instead to trust in God as their Provider. He gave the comparison of the Gentiles worrying about what they will eat or drink or wear. Gentiles in this case meant those who didn’t believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then, by contrast, in verse 34 Jesus made this powerful statement about how you and I, as believers, are to think and trust:
Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Don’t worry. Trust God as your Provider. That is our instruction from Jesus Christ, whether we are rich or poor or anywhere in between.
As harsh as this may sound, our worry and stress about money is a measure of our faith. Do we put our trust and confidence in God? Or do we put our trust and confidence in money?
This is a big deal. And as I’ve mentioned earlier, this shift requires some deep thinking, praying, and transforming regarding how we believe. Your Daniel Fast is the perfect runway for you to enter into this deep spiritual transformation.
Let’s back up for a minute. My assumption is that you are reading this book because you want to know how God can help, lead, and direct you concerning your finances. Right? Maybe you’re in crisis and you’re not sure what to do. Or perhaps you’re exhausted from carrying the weight of your money issues for so long, and you want relief and answers. Maybe you want to take a step in your faith and bring Christ into the center of your financial business. Whatever the reason, you’re reading this book to see what God has to show you about Him and your money.
Here is a fact that you need to accept: The truths that the Bible teaches about finances won’t operate in your life until you first recognize God as your Source. And I don’t mean in a platitudinal kind of way, where you say it but don’t really believe it. I mean in a stark, unqualified, deep-in-your-heart kind of way. God alone is the source of everything we have.
That’s the way Abraham thought about God. He recognized Him and honored Him as his Source for all he owned.
ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD TO BE HIS SOURCE
The life of our patriarch Abraham, his coming to faith, and his long journey as our father of faith work together to give us a powerful model to follow. Genesis 17:5 shows God renaming Abraham as part of the covenant:
No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.
In the book of Romans, Paul holds up Abraham as our father in faith:
Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.
Let’s look at Abraham and his journey in faith as God introduces Himself to the man and shows Himself to be the source of all.
When his father died, Abram (whose name God later changed to Abraham) was married to Sarai (later called Sarah) and living in Haran, now in present-day Turkey. That’s when almighty God spoke to him and instructed him to leave all he had known and move to another place.
Now the LORD had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
The number of promises in this short passage is amazing. The Lord told Abram He would:
- show him a new land,
- make him a great nation,
- bless him,
- make his name great,
- bless those who blessed him, and
- curse those who cursed him.
God established Himself as the Source of everything for Abram and the Source of everything to all his descendants (of whom you are one—see Romans 4:13). The great I AM instituted Himself as the all-in-all “I will.” Every good thing that would come into Abraham’s life was from the hand of God.
When you study the entire story of Abraham (Genesis 12–25), you’ll see that God gave him a whole-life blessing. A complete blessing. God blessed Abram in every area of his life, even when Abram made serious mistakes. And Abram received the blessing of God through faith, not because of his own effort.
God blessed Abram with a position as the father of many nations and more people than he could count.
Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude—innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.
He also blessed Abram with possessions and wealth. Abram became rich in livestock, silver, and gold. His riches weren’t due to his business prowess; he was rich because of God. We see proof of that when Abram gave up the best land to his nephew, Lot. Lot had traveled long distances with Abram. And both men, after leaving their homeland, had become very rich, and their herds had multiplied:
Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents. Now the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. The Canaanites and the Perizzites then dwelt in the land.
So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.”
Imagine that scene. Abram had huge herds, a wife, and many people who looked to him for their support. The choice about which land he would dwell in was a choice for his future. Yet he let Lot make the choice because Abram saw God as his Source. He trusted God with his future.
Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar. Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the LORD.
At first glance, we see that Lot chose the best land—land that was “well watered everywhere.” It appears that he would have the best future. But then we also see that there’s more happening here, as there often is in our own lives. Proverbs 21:2 shows us that what seems right to us may not always be so: “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the hearts.” Lot chose the best land from what seems to have been a heart of greed and selfishness. He could have chosen the best land for his elder uncle, Abram, but he didn’t. And an unseen challenge awaited him in his new home. Meanwhile, Abram put his trust in God.
The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.”
Then Abram moved his tent, and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the LORD.
God gave Abram more than he could ever gain, inherit, or even imagine for himself. God gave the land along with the blessing for what was to come. God was Abram’s Source.
Meanwhile, Lot had gone a different way, to a land full of evil and warring men. He chose to go one direction, which brought him into a region where four kings warred against five other kings. The four kings and their armies were overpowered. Some fled the region. Others died. Meanwhile, the five kings gathered all the goods and some captives—and one of them was Lot, Abram’s nephew.
Word of Lot’s capture reached Abram, and his loyalty immediately kicked in. He gathered all his available forces and arranged a plan to rescue his nephew.
Now when Abram heard that [Lot] was taken captive, he armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were born in his own house, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. He divided his forces against them by night, and he and his servants attacked them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus. So he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the people.
And the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley), after his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him.
Abram to the rescue! He not only liberated Lot, but he also salvaged all his goods, as well as all the goods of the kings and their women and children. He was the hero and clearly deserved honor. Then something unusual happened.
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said:
“Blessed be Abram of God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth;
And blessed be God Most High,
Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.”
And [Abram] gave him a tithe of all.
This passage is packed with truths and foretelling, which we’ll talk about more in chapter 7. For now, let’s look at a couple of key points. First, Melchizedek was the king of Salem and the priest of God. Hundreds of years later, the psalmist wrote, “In Salem also is His tabernacle, and His dwelling place in Zion” (Psalm 76:2). Mount Zion is the easternmost of the two hills of ancient Jerusalem. So Melchizedek was not only a priest but also the king of the area that would come to be known as Jerusalem.
Second, Melchizedek declared that God had delivered Abram’s enemies into his hands. This was a fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham: “I will curse him who curses you.”
And third, while Abram was being blessed for his heroism, he honored Melchizedek with a tithe (one-tenth) of all the goods he had gained in the battle. This is the first recorded tithe, given to the king of Salem and the priest of the Most High God.
Abram had defeated the enemy and taken all the goods they had stolen. He freed the women and children from captivity, and he freed his nephew Lot and regained all his stolen goods. Now the king of Sodom wanted to reward Abram:
Now the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, and take the goods for yourself.”
But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth, that I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich’—except only what the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me: Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.”
Abram said he had made an oath to God and he didn’t want anyone to think that they had made him rich, so he took none of the goods for himself. He looked out for the needs of his troops, but he personally took nothing. None of the goods were ever his; he had only served and recovered what had been lost. And throughout this situation, he saw God as his Source.
ENTERING INTO A COVENANT
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
But Abram said, “Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!”
And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
Then He said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.”
And he said, “Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?”
Please keep in mind that God, over and over again, was establishing that He is the source of all that is good. He is the source of the blessing. And now He was showing Abram that he would be the forefather of more people than he could ever count.
Abram was an older man by now. And Sarai, his wife, was past her childbearing years. Yet Abram heard God’s promise to him, and he believed. But now he was asking the Lord for a sign. “How will I know, Lord?”
This leads us to a stunning display of God’s goodness that was for Abram’s benefit then and remains for our benefit today: God instituted an everlasting covenant with Abram. This wasn’t like a handshake agreement; this was a deeply committed promise.
In ancient Hebrew culture, a covenant was established between the two parties of the agreement, and a ritual was practiced to mark the solemn occasion. The men would take one or more fattened animals, usually the best of the flock, and cut them into two pieces. They would then lay the pieces in two rows, leaving a path through the center. The blood of the animals would flow onto the path, and the two individuals making the covenant with each other would walk on the path between the pieces, symbolizing their commitment to the promise. By their actions they were saying, “If I do not hold to the agreements of this covenant, you can do to me what we did to these animals.”[3]
This practice of establishing a covenant is recorded clearly in Jeremiah 34:18-20:
I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts of it—the princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf—I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. Their dead bodies shall be for meat for the birds of the heaven and the beasts of the earth.
This type of covenant is called a “cutting covenant” or a “blood covenant.” A covenant was not a light notion; instead, it was a promise that would never be broken. When Abram asked God how he would know that the promises about his having countless descendants would come to pass, God’s response was to instruct Abram to arrange the blood covenant.
Carefully read what took place during this covenant between these two parties, God and Abram:
He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying:
“To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
Did you see the amazing act of love that your God displayed when He made the everlasting blood covenant with Abram? Abram readied everything, but then he went into a deep sleep. And while he slept, God, in the form of a flame, walked between the pieces making the covenant with Himself.[4] Nothing Abram would do in the future could break the covenant, because the promise that God made to Abram then, and to all the descendants to come, was to Himself. No person could ever void this promise.
When God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.”
The same promise God made to Abram is yours today. As a follower of Jesus Christ, you are a descendant of Abraham and under the same covenant of blessing, as we read in both Romans and Galatians.
Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
God is your Source, just as He was Abraham’s Source. Abraham had unshakable confidence that His God was the source for all he needed in his life. God continued to bless Abraham, and Abraham continued to prosper.
Now it’s time for us today to make the shift from seeing ourselves as the source of what we have to recognizing God as our Source for all we need. This brings us back to believing that God is who He says He is and that His Word is true. And Jesus gives us very clear instructions about where to place our trust in all things, including our financial matters: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).
This is a foundational point as you begin your Daniel Fast focusing on your finances. Before you can deal with debt, or budgets, or financial stressors, you first want to step back and consider what it means for God to be the source of all you have and all you need. Your resources may be limited, but His are not. Can you trust that He is enough?
Making this shift is all part of maturing in our faith. It’s about choosing the ways of the Kingdom rather than the ways of the world. It’s about seeing God as our Source and the provider of all we need, and seeing our role as stewards of His blessing.
Faithful Servant Action Steps
- One of your action steps for chapter 3 was to write down on eight pieces of paper your fears about money and then place those papers in your Bible. Take them out now and read each one. Do you sense any shift in your thinking since you wrote these down? Are hope and faith replacing those fears? How can you encourage that process? (When you’re finished, return the papers to your Bible; we’ll use them again later.)
- Make a list of at least ten things that you value. In your mind and heart, recognize each one as a blessing from your God. Thank Him for providing all of these to you and then rest in His presence as you experience your grateful heart.
- Think about where you are today concerning your finances. Do you trust God with your future? Spend time with your loving Father and ask Him to help you see Him as your Source. Lay your future at His feet and begin believing that He will provide the very best for you.