… [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]
Hebrews 13:5
The fear of lack, or the fear of not having what you need, is possibly one of the biggest fears that people deal with. We have an inherent need for preservation and spend much of our time in life taking care of ourselves and our loved ones. If we think we may not be taken care of, it is easy to let fear fill our thoughts, words, and emotions, but we don’t have to. As believers in Jesus Christ, we have the privilege of putting our faith in God to meet all of our needs. And when we do that, faith will conquer fear. God’s Word teaches us that when we seek the Lord, none of us shall lack any beneficial thing (see Psalm 34:10). There will be no want to those who truly revere and worship Him.
O fear the Lord, you His saints [revere and worship Him]! For there is no want to those who truly revere and worship Him with godly fear.
Psalm 34:9
Have you faced times when you wondered if God would really come through and meet your needs? I have, and now that I am on the other side of those times I can assure you that God is faithful. It is always good to be on the other side of difficulty, but that doesn’t seem to help us much when we are going through that difficulty. At least not until we have gone through several things and have experienced God’s faithfulness. Then and only then can we develop a strong faith that will overcome the fear of lack in our lives.
We live life forward, but we understand it backward. I can look back now and see how most of the really hard things I went through in life have actually worked out for my good and helped to make me the person I am today. I thought at the time that they would kill me, like most of you do, but here I am still alive and doing well. My problems not only didn’t kill me, but they made me stronger!
We may not always get what we want, but God will always provide what we need. He does give us the desires of our heart if those desires are in accordance with His will for us. I sometimes find myself feeling afraid that I won’t get what I want, or that things won’t turn out the way I want them to, and then I remember that God’s ways are better than mine and I trust Him to do what is best for me.
We may not always get what we want, but God will always provide what we need.
As I sensed God calling me to teach His Word, I knew that I needed to have lots of time to study and prepare before I would be able to help many people. Preparation is very important, and it is something that we must do if we expect to be any good at what we do. I was a young wife and mother of three children at the time and I worked a full-time job, so that left me with very little time to do anything. I cooked, cleaned, shopped, went to Girl Scout meetings, parent-teacher meetings, helped with homework, went to church, volunteered at church for various committees and events, and on and on the list goes.
Eventually I came to believe that God was leading me to quit my job so I could prepare for what I had come to believe would be a future in ministry. However, there was a problem: Our bills added up to more than Dave’s income, so if I quit my job, we wouldn’t have enough money to even pay the bills, let alone anything extra for all the unexpected things that come up in life. I was afraid to step out in faith and do what I believed I should do.
I wonder: How many of you are facing a situation like that in your life right now? Perhaps many of you; I hope my story will give you courage to “step out and find out” what the future holds.
I would like to say that I courageously took a step of faith without hesitation, but that was not the case. I waited and waited and finally took a part-time job; then I was fired from my part-time job. You must understand that I was a very hard worker and not the type of employee who got fired. You see, God was leading me to quit my job and totally trust Him, but I gave a sacrifice instead of obedience, which still equals disobedience. I did quit a 40-hour-a-week job, but still worked two and a half days a week so I could take care of myself and feel confident that we would have enough money. I said I was trusting in God, but I wasn’t “completely” trusting Him, and that was what He needed from me.
We were $40 a month short of having enough money to pay our bills and God was asking me to trust Him, but I had very little experience in doing that, so the thought of it was extremely frightening to me. I realize now that had I not obeyed God then, I wouldn’t be doing what I am doing today. I had to trust God for $40 a month before I could trust him for the millions needed today to reach the world through television and other media outlets with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I wanted to do something great, but I was unwilling to do something small! People like that never succeed. It is only when we are faithful in little things that God can eventually make us rulers over much (see Matthew 25:21).
It is only when we are faithful in little things that God can eventually make us rulers over much.
When I was fired from my part-time job, I realized that God meant business, and I didn’t look for another job. I started my journey of trusting God to meet all of our financial needs, and I knew that meant I would need miracles on a regular basis. God did amazing things for our family over a period of six years while I was teaching two small home Bible studies, and I continued studying every opportunity I got. The things God did would seem small to most people, and perhaps in their mind wouldn’t qualify for “miracle status,” but to us they were miracles. And as we saw the faithfulness of God, it helped us develop an intimate relationship with Him.
Let me quickly say that I am not suggesting that anyone quit working a job in order to prepare for the next thing you believe God wants you to do, unless you have a clear direction from God to do so. What I did was really radical, but I did see God’s provision—and we were never late paying a bill once. If God had not provided, then I would have quickly known it was my idea—not God’s—and I would have gotten a job very fast. We must always remember that what God orders, He pays for! God was leading me and the evidence was seen in the fact that He provided what we needed.
The money we needed came in differently each time. Once it was a refund on taxes we weren’t expecting. Our monthly fee for utilities was lowered and that helped each month. We got things on sale that we were not expecting at the grocery store, and people would bless us with things that we needed. We were invited out to dinner, which saved on groceries, and quite often someone would just hand us a gift of money and say, “I felt that God put it on my heart to bless you with this.” Wow! I had never had anything like that happen to me in my life and it was very exciting. Once I needed new dishcloths and had written on my prayer list a request for a dozen of them. A few weeks went by, and then one day the doorbell rang. I opened the door, and a woman I hardly knew held out a stack of dishcloths and said, “I hope you don’t think I am crazy, but I felt strongly that God wanted me to gift you a dozen dishcloths.” Things like this had never happened before because I never needed it to, and when I did need it, God came through.
For six years I can say that we lived on monthly miracles. I remember going to garage sales with a few dollars and finding tennis shoes that were new for my children, or other items I needed. I could cook hamburger 100 different ways. New clothes for Dave or me were extremely rare, but somehow we always had what we needed. We didn’t have everything we wanted, but we did have what we needed. Through it all I learned not to worry so much and to trust more.
Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.
Corrie ten Boom
One day while studying, I was struck by the fact that when God was leading the Israelites toward the Promised Land, their clothes and shoes didn’t wear out. They didn’t get new ones, but God miraculously made the ones they had last 40 years. God has many ways of providing for us, and we should be excited about them all.
The reason I share my story with you is to encourage you as you stand in faith, believing God to meet your needs. Just as God provided for me and for my family, He will provide for you and for your family. The exact methods may be different, but His providing nature is the same—He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. All throughout Scripture God shows Himself to be a provider. Whether it is food, shelter, healing, hope, or salvation, He provides everything we need. So be encouraged today; keep your head up and your eyes looking forward. God’s provision is on the way.
Any farmer knows that he cannot reap where he has not sown, and the same principle is true for us. As we give, it is given unto us (see Luke 6:38), so Dave and I never failed to give our tithe and offerings to the work of God. Even when it was very difficult to do so, we did it and we saw the results. God has given us several promises regarding His care for us that we should take time to look at.
Give, and [gifts] will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over…
Luke 6:38
[Remember] this: he who sows sparingly and grudgingly will also reap sparingly and grudgingly, and he who sows generously [that blessings may come to someone] will also reap generously and with blessings.
2 Corinthians 9:6
And God is able to make all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need be self-sufficient [possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation].
2 Corinthians 9:8
… Whatever a man sows, that and that only is what he will reap.
Galatians 6:7
Bring all the tithes (the whole tenth of your income) into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and prove Me now by it, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
Malachi 3:10
We should not give merely to get, but we cannot expect to reap where we have not sown. If you give generously to help others and do so with a good attitude, God will always be faithful to meet all of your needs.
If you give generously to help others and do so with a good attitude, God will always be faithful to meet all of your needs.
God once sent a mighty prophet to a poor widow to have his needs met. It was a time of famine in the land, and when he arrived, she told him that she barely had enough for one last meal for her and her son and then they were going to die. I teasingly say that she was not only poor, but she was also depressed and focused on death. Couldn’t God have come up with someone better for the prophet? Before, God arranged for him to be fed by ravens bringing him food in the morning and evening. That sounds more exciting to me than a poor, depressed widow who was focused on dying. But God didn’t send Elijah to the widow for himself; he was sent there because the widow needed a miracle.
The first thing that Elijah told her to do was feed him, to which she responded that she could not due to her lack. The prophet persisted in his request, and I am sure that even though she complied, she was quite afraid. He had promised her that if she gave to him first, she would have plenty to eat for the remaining days of the famine. Elijah didn’t need the widow to give him something, but she needed to give! As soon as she did, the oil in the bottle and the meal in the barrel began to multiply and continued to do so. This entire story is found in 1 Kings 17, and it is definitely worth taking the time to read and study it.
If the idea of giving your money away is frightening, then start by doing it afraid and eventually you will be able to do it in faith. Say, “Lord I am afraid, but I am going to do this because You want me to, and I love You.” The thought of giving money away may even be foreign to some of you, and if it is, I ask that you study God’s Word on the subject. I believe you will see that it is a biblical principle that cannot be ignored.
You may feel that you cannot afford to give, but truthfully, you can’t afford not to. No farmer expects a harvest unless he plants seed. If we want a harvest of good things in our lives, then we also need to plant seed. If you don’t know the principles of giving, you may not even know where to give or what to give to. The Bible says to bring the tithe and offering into the storehouse that there might be meat in God’s house. We should give to churches and ministries that are meeting our needs and the needs of others. Give to the poor! Give to finance the preaching of the Gospel! Give to help people who have no one to help them. Form a habit of being a blessing everywhere you go!
God doesn’t need our money, so why does He ask us to give it? I believe giving releases something in us that is beautiful. God is a giver, and I think that when we give unselfishly, we are more like God than at any other time in our lives. Giving is one way to resist selfishness and greed. “It is more blessed (makes one happier and more to be envied) to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). When someone gives us a gift, we only get the gift, but when we give, we get the joy of giving. The tithe represents the first 10 percent of all of our increase. Why tithe? Because if we are willing to give the first portion right off the top in obedience to God, it shows we are putting Him first and trusting Him to take care of the rest. God can make 90 percent go farther than 100 percent would have, but you’ll never know if you don’t step out and find out.
To a child of God, His provision appears to be miraculous, but to those who don’t have their faith in God, it seems like mere coincidence. I want to live amazed at what God is doing all the time, so I choose to be like a little child in this matter and I hope you will also. Perhaps if you begin to see what God is already doing for you, then it will be easier to trust that He will always meet your needs and that you don’t have to be afraid of lack. Someone told me yesterday that I was lucky that I had been able to overcome the abuse in my childhood. I don’t believe it was luck; I believe it was and is the goodness of God. The word “luck” suggests that a thing merely happened by chance and there was nothing divine involved, and I don’t believe that. Life would be quite dreary if all we had to look forward to was whatever luck we had or didn’t have.
We can trust God to take care of us at all times and in every way. God has done so many amazing things in my life that I don’t have enough room in this book to share them all, but here are a couple that I remember fondly.
Our ministry was only a few years old and not very large yet, but we still had ministry bills to pay and lived from week to week, trusting God to provide what we needed. Most of the income came in from small conferences and meetings that I conducted locally. I went to the doctor for a regular checkup, and about three weeks later was in the hospital having surgery due to breast cancer. This was sudden and unexpected and we had no time to plan financially for the interval I would be off work. I was home from the hospital, trying not to worry while I was recovering, and one evening the doorbell rang. A local pastor that we didn’t know personally was standing outside and proceeded to tell Dave that he was going out of the ministry and had sold his church building and, as the law requires, was distributing the funds to other ministries. He handed us a check for $10,000! That was probably the largest offering we had ever received at that time and was more than enough to get us through until I could go back to work. Luck? To us this was a huge miracle and certainly not something we attributed to coincidence or luck.
Another time Dave and I desperately needed a new car because ours was literally falling apart. We had no possible way to buy one because it was during the days when I had quit my job and we were trusting God for every little tiny thing we needed. One of Dave’s brothers, who didn’t know how desperate our situation was, called and said that they were getting a new car. Instead of trading in their station wagon that was in good condition, they felt that they wanted to give it to us!
I only tell you these stories to provoke you to believe God for miraculous provision in your own life. Give as God directs you and trust Him to meet all of your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus (see Philippians 4:19).
Money is certainly not the only thing we can lack. We need strength, ability, wisdom, creativity, relationships, and hundreds of other things. God’s Word teaches us that He will provide everything we need as we trust Him to do so. I daily trust God for grace, wisdom, creativity, and strength to do all that I need to do. I don’t merely assume that I will have it, or fear that I won’t have it; I ask for it. The apostle James said, “You do not have, because you do not ask” (James 4:2). The apostle John said, “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:24 NKJV).
I was a practicing Christian for many years before I learned that God was my Provider in all things. I knew that my sins were forgiven and that I would go to Heaven when I died, but that was about all I depended on God for. In all other areas, I worked hard to try to take care of myself. Of course I was frustrated, confused, and disappointed most of the time because God wants to take care of us. He will actually hinder us from being successful at whatever we’re doing until we trust Him to do it for us.
We should trust God for all things! If you need to confront a situation and you’re afraid you won’t know what to say, then you can ask God to give you the right words at the right time and trust that He will. If you are applying for a job but you’re afraid you won’t get it, you can ask God for favor and trust that you will get it. I pray for favor all the time. God’s favor causes situations to turn out favorably for you when there is no reason for them to, except that God is working on your behalf. If you are lonely, ask God to provide friends for you. The situations in which we need God’s help are endless, and life can get very exciting when we let Him into all of those situations and begin expecting to see Him at work in them.
David said that the Lord is our Shepherd and we shall not lack (see Psalm 23:1). A good shepherd takes care of his sheep, and Jesus is called “the Good Shepherd” (see John 10:11–14). God told the Israelites that He would lead them into a land where they would eat food without shortage and lack nothing in it (see Deuteronomy 8:7–10). God’s Word to us today is no different from what it was to them. We don’t have to fear lack! God will provide whatever you need in any situation. I admit that His timing is not always as speedy as we would like it to be, but He does not fail us. Even when we have to wait for something longer than we want to, we can trust that God’s timing in our life is perfect. Although He doesn’t always give us everything we want exactly when we want it, He will give us what we need at the right time, and we can rest in that.
The young lions lack food and suffer hunger, but they who seek (inquire of and require) the Lord [by right of their need and on the authority of His Word], none of them shall lack any beneficial thing.
Psalm 34:10
I love this Scripture because it teaches me that my need gives me a right to ask! Wow! We don’t have to be perfect or special, we just have to have a need—and when we do, we can approach God in faith based on the authority of His Word, and we will not lack. Just think, instead of being afraid that we will not have enough of what we need, we can have faith that we will have enough. Don’t wait until you are experiencing some kind of disaster to start trusting God. I am trusting God right now that He will take care of me, my family, and our ministry and its partners as long as we are here on Earth. Sometimes we wait until we are in deep trouble before we turn to God, and by then, the devil has his roots deeply planted in all areas of our lives, and although God will certainly help us, it may take longer. If that is the case with you, then don’t give up. Be patient and go all the way through with God and learn to live by faith instead of by fear.
From its opening in Genesis, the Bible tells a story of abundance. In the first chapter, we see God as lavishly creative. He didn’t create a few stars, He created so many that they cannot be counted. His oceans are so huge that we cannot see to the end of them from the shore. He created large amounts of animals and plants and flowers and trees. And after He made it all—including man and woman—He said that His creation was very good! Throughout the Bible we see a God of abundance, who called Himself El Shaddai, meaning the God of more than enough.
The people held regular feasts to honor and thank God for His abundance. I am not suggesting that scarcity has not come into this fallen and sinful world, but as citizens of God’s kingdom and economy, we can still benefit from God’s original plan for man. God sets good and evil, life and death, before us and asks us to choose life (see Deuteronomy 30:19). Choose faith instead of fear; trust God for abundance instead of fearing scarcity; believe that God has more than enough of everything to go around and start trusting Him for your portion.
You might say, “I thought we were supposed to be content with what we have.” You are right, we are to be content and that means satisfied to the point where we are not disturbed no matter what our circumstances are. But that does not mean that we should not trust God to improve our situation and provide for us abundantly.
I remember when I had a great fear of not having enough. I had learned early in life that I had to take care of myself. My father was a very stingy man and never seemed to want me to have the things that other children and teenagers had. He did provide for my basic needs but refused to buy me things like a class ring, school pictures, a yearbook, or a graduation dress. If I wanted those things I had to find a way to get them myself. I babysat and worked at a local merchandise store in order to have the things I needed. I think the way he treated me left me with a deep-seated belief that I was only worth the least of everything and should only expect what I had to have in order to get by in life. It was easy for me to make the transition into being an adult who was fearful of never having enough. I lived with as little as I could, but when I did need to purchase something, I searched for the best bargain I could find. Looking for good prices is not wrong, but I was excessive to say the least. The fear of not having enough tormented me continually.
Through my relationship with God, I gradually learned to trust Him for abundance. I learned that God wants His children to have the best, not the least. He does exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond all we dare to hope, ask, or think (see Ephesians 3:20). I encourage you to develop a mind-set of abundance, not scarcity. Trust God to provide for all of your needs and to give you the desires of your heart (see Psalm 37:4). Don’t live in the fear of lack, for God promises that He will liberally supply your every need.
And my God will liberally supply (fill to the full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19