Expecting Provision

“What if?”

There are many times this question comes up in life. How can we possibly be prepared for it all? Maybe we can’t! I’m relearning this over and over as we navigate this home assignment.

It’s been a while since I’ve written here. Our family is now in the middle of our year back in the US before returning to Kenya later this summer, Lord-willing. We’ve been so thankful and blessed by God’s provision for us this year so far. We arrived home and had many doctor’s appointments that all turned out well. We had our house here to settle into right away. We have had sweet times with family and friends. Tom has been blessed to continue work at Triad Pediatrics. We have been able to be part of a wonderful homeschool community very close to our home. We received valuable counseling in December. We had Covid and recovered. The list goes on…

Among all these evidences of God’s provision, I still can tend to question if He will continue to provide. Will every need really be met? Are you sure, Lord? Isn’t there something more I should be doing to take care of all the possible ‘what if’s?’

I think God is reminding me again that I can lay all my anxiety at His feet. He is the one who says he provides more abundantly than I could even ask or think (Eph. 4:20-21). As we rest in him and his sufficiency, we can trust Jesus to guide us and give us wisdom. We can expect his provision. We will even at times be surprised by his provision.

Just a real quick practical of this from Scripture that jumped out at me recently. Many of us have heard the story of Elijah being told by God to go away from King Ahab and hide by the brook at Cherith for a time. In Sunday school or a children’s Bible, we usually see a man lounging by a lush stream. Well, that’s probably not quite how it was. God provided for him there. It was dry and rocky. He could never have grown or caught his own food in that place. So God had ravens bring him bread and meat. Ravens?! Yes, ravens. What scavenger bird do you know of would bring food in its mouth to a human being and drop it off? No way!! And ravens were even thought of as unclean and disgusting birds to steer clear of in Bible times. Wow. More than Elijah could have asked or imagined. A miracle.

So as I continue to think about the coming months and years, I can trust God to provide financially, physically, spiritually, and emotionally for our family to be where He wants us to be, trust that He will provide for our kids in every way, trust that He will lead the way. May we walk in obedience to Him and expect Him to provide, because He says He will!

“God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”

-2 Corinthians 9:8