Does God really promise to supply our needs?

Sometimes the problem is we don't always recognize what is a need and what is a want. God knows our true needs evenw hen we do not.
Bankruptcy, cut off utilities, soemwhere in all the mess someoen is at fault for thier condition. And living with it is called conquences(sp?), God does not wipes out the conquences of our actions.
What about those who have lost their lives?
Our old pastor used to say the death rate is currenty one for one.
For the christian death is not the final end, it is the beginning of our true life. All our christian lives we walk by faith not by sight, but death is the oppertunity to have our faith become sight as we see Jesus face to face. To me thats a glorious thing. I have told my husband when I die my family can grieve for me today, but tomorrow they must rejoice, I can't think of a better place I'd rather be then with Jesus. Death looks like a bad thing to those of us left behind by our loved ones, but to the one whose has gone ahead of us it is joyful moment.

But do we really know what our needs are? Sometimes not. I think we misinterpet this sometimes.

Are they actually seeking God? We do not know whats in a persons heart.
All of what things?
Food, shelter, clothes, food, water?
Who are these promises too? The world or christians?

 

As for the people who lost their lives - was that the end of their story or was there something that happened next?

 

David questioned God often in the Psalms.

 

North Carolina Tentmaker:

The context of Matt. 6:25-33 is that God will provide food, drink, and clothing to His children. It doen't mean you will be rich, or not face financial difficulty, it doesn't even mean you won't be hungry or thirsty. It means we should look to God as the provision for our needs and be satisfied with Him.

This is part of the sermon on the mount. Only a few verses prior, Jesus is warning them of the great persecution they will face as His followers (5:12) and that troubles (storms) will follow them(7:24-27). You therefore must have your house built upon the firm foundation of His words, so that you can weather the storm.

All throughout the New Testament, the followers of Christ are warned not to take stock in this world, but the next. Not to be satisfied with this world, but to live as aliens in a strange land, expecting persecution for His names sake.

This kind of persecution happens in almost every part of the world, except in the West, where "christianity" is the common "religion".

Christians is China, the Middle East, and former Soviet republics face real persecutions, even death. We get our power shut off, or have to declare bankrupcy for whatever reason and we think God has abandoned us, or worse, that God can't provide all our needs.

When scripture speaks of the "great falling away" I believe it speaks of those who profess to be Christians, but will quickly fall away when the persecution begins. If we are reduced to handringing and questioning God's ability to provide when the power/telephone is being shut off, what are we going to do when Christians are being thrown into prison and killed in this country, as they are in other countries?

We should expect persecutions and troubles from this world, and they cannot compare to the riches and glories we can expect in the next. That is what you should tell those who question God's ability to answer their prayers.

 

Our need? Yes. Our wants? No.

The Christian must learn to discern his needs from his wants.

 

As far as monetary needs/wants go, perhap God in His wisdom knows that if He supplied more than the person so supplied would take his focus off the Lord. Sometimes the more money you have the less you depend on the Lord for it and we cease to be thankful. Sometimes the person who is lying to us, is us.

As far as sickness and death go, they happen. We live in a world marred by sin. It is marred for ALL of us saved and unsaved. Our hope is not for this world but for the NEXT! Even through sickness and death God's strength will sustain us, but both are going to happen at one time or another. HOW we deal with such issues is sometimes a measure of our faith and maturity as a Christian.

John 14:14 is what I was always taught was a conditional promise. If we fulfill the condition then God will fulfill the promise. In this case the condition is found in the preceding few verses. IF we have faith AND IF we do the things Christ did/does then we can ask and Christ will do it in order to bring glory to the Father. James covered this in chapter 4 verse 3: "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives"

 

I posted, in the humor section, a little parable about this kind of thing.

Basically, 2 angels visit earth.
They seek shelter with a rich couple, but the rich couple is rude, and doesn't want them. Eventually they give them shelter, but it is in the basement and it is cold and dark, and they share almost nothing else with the angels.

There was a hole in the wall and the angel fixed it.

The younger angel is upset and the older angel says, "Things are not always what they seem."

The angels then visit a poor farmer and his wife. That couple treats them like family.
The next day, as the angels leave, the family discovers the milk-cow is dead. The younger angel is upset.

"You helped the couple that was rude, and you did not help the couple in need!"

The older angel says, "Things are not always what they seem. While we were in the basement I saw there was gold hidden in the wall, so I sealed the hole so that the rich couple could not find it. Things are not always what they seem. The angel of death came for the farmer's wife, I gave him the milk cow instead."

That said:

It really all comes back to "need" vs "want" and to "our view" vs "God's view."

Bankruptcy erases debt and forces a person to live on a cash basis. That seems like a "need" to us, but we don't really "need" to be in debt, and we don't really "need" all that credit.

When my mother had cancer, I prayed she lived. She asked me to stop praying that. She ~wanted~ to go home. She wanted to be with God. She was tired of bills and taxes and hard work and sickness. She said praying for life for her was a selfish prayer from those who loved her since it meant that much longer away from the arms of God in a place of total peace. She had a valid point.

As to the rest - God ~will~ provide. Sometimes it is hard to see the provision through the panic. Sometimes forcing us to our knees is the only way to get us to look to the source of our blessings so we can receive more blessings.

 

I believe that God does in fact meet our needs, as His Word promises. The key, however, is the acceptance that God knows our needs better than we. As such, we have to accept by faith that whatever we are provided is sufficient for our needs and in accordance with God's will to meet those needs, for His glory.

That is a difficult concept to grasp, and accept, but an essential one in order to grow in the grace of God with peace and contentment. As we are sanctified, growing in Him to become more like Him, like Paul, we can find contentment and peace in our circumstances and thus find that our needs have been met for His glory.

We don't have to be thankful for the circumstance, but rather we can be thankful in the circumstance whatever it may be. Again, not easy to do, but then again the path is narrow and few enter.

 

Every Christian that has ever lived has gotten 100% of every need met every day of their lives. When it comes time for them to die then, they need to die and they have 100% of that need met. I used to think this was a copout until I realized it was a matter of faith. When I look back on my life I can see that anything I didn't get, I didn't need. I can safely say that anything I need,I will get, and if I don't get it, then, that is the definition of something I don't need.

 

What is a "need", as opposed to a "want"?

If you are currently alive and breathing, your "essential needs" for this life have all been met to this point. If you are a child of God, when you physically die, all possible needs AND wants will be met in glory!

If it could be unambiguously demonstrated to the satisfaction of unbelievers and believers alike, that Christianity is clearly the superior "method" to obtain more material and physical comforts, then we don't currently have enough Churches to hold all those who would want to be Christians!

Our "fleshly eyes" will never perceive the riches that can only be seen through "the eyes of faith".

It is little wonder that the Lord places such a premium on faith. Like the song says, "faith is the victory".

 

There's a wonderful child's book about prayer that addresses this.

"We Need a Moose"

He prays for a moose so he'd be able to ride on it's back and go on great adventures. No moose.

The child prays for a chimp so the chimp could play with him at the park and stomp in mud puddles. No chimp.

He prays for a bird when his airplane is stuck on the roof.

The child prays for a camel so they could play out when it's hot. The camel could keep juice in his hump. No camel.

When mom went away for the day, he asked Dad if he could get a 'croc' to play in his pool and that night he prayed and asked God for a croc. No croc.

One afternoon his mother leaves and doesn't come home. The next morning dad takes him quietly into their bedroom to show him his brand new baby brother and the child realizes that God knew what he REALLY needed!

"We Need a Moose" by Lynne Fairbridge

 

All the things inferred that we NEED-- food, drink, shelter-- are for keeping us alive. So if we have no need for being kept alive, how do have any needs at all? And therefore, how is this not a completely uselss verse of scripture?

 

Our time is not God's time. God is able to do anything. We just need to have faith and keep praying.

No, everything does not work out the way we want it, and we don't always understand it, but I can testify that God has definitely shown me more blessings walking with Him than own my own.

A lot of times, I know there are things I am NOT having to go through because He has protected me from it. We often take this for granted. If those children in your class would start counting blessings, it would quickly overwhelm their "unanswered prayer list", but the Christian thing to do is pray for those needs. Maybe asking for prayer requests in class would work out for you. Ask for the prayer requests (Mom is sick, Dad lost his job, the whole country is going to heck, etc.) and then you can pray for them publicly.

Never give up.

 

"And therefore, how is this not a completely uselss verse of scripture?"

--- Because we as humans - worry. We worry so much that we don't see the blessings around us.

Today - the brakes went out on my car. I had a nice cry about it too, but then I stopped and thanked God for meeting MY needs. There was a break in the traffic at exactly the moment I most needed those brakes. Due to this very unusual circumstance in the traffic, I didn't have an accident. I made it home safely. I wanted brakes, God saw what I needed was a way to stop the car without killing anyone. God fulfilled my need, but He didn't give me new brakes.

(PS - Please ask God to show me the way out of this transportation problem.)

 

LovesJesus said this well "We just need to have faith and keep praying," but we also have to have real faith that God will answer that prayer.

That's the hard part about prayer. Finding that "grain of mustardseed faith." We THINK we have faith. We tell ourselves we don't doubt that Christ "CAN" do it, but we pray with an attitude of, "God, I know you won't do this, but I thought maybe it wouldn't hurt to ask." That won't do it.

I love the way my handbell choir director phrases it. If she agrees to pray for anything she doesn't say, "I'm going to ask God for this," she says, "I'm going to claim God for this."

You have to believe He can and will.
If you don't believe He will, why not? What makes you doubt He wants that for you?

 

That is assuming that you, or any potential victim, has a need to stay alive and unhurt-- a need He does not always take care of. So then He doesn't take care of our needs, which renders the scripture false, or the only thing left is we have no need to stay alive and unhurt.

Of course, sometimes He does give us a brake, though.

 

Check your brake fluid. If it's low, email me and I'll tell you what else you need to do. Air in the lines must be bled.

Praying for a miracle!