We all need provision. In this day and age, it’s easy to feel like we are in control of our provision. That our decisions and efforts secure it and also ensure it. Salaried jobs with benefits, investments, savings, budgets, owning a home etc. All help us feel confident in the relatively predictable resources to come and to go.
However, that is a false sense of comfort. Nothing is guaranteed in this life. God is the ultimate provider. Yes, we are called to be good stewards of the resources he provides, but we are not the ultimate source.
Jesus lovingly reminds us that LIFE is going to happen. Whether you can see it looking back on your past, it unknowingly awaits you in your future or you’re trudging through it right now. Do not rest on your own understanding (Proverbs 3:5).
I wrote this in advance of both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, both which reminded so many of us how alarmingly true this is.
Maybe you’re on a steady climb or a constant struggle to make ends meet. Maybe you’re longing for a breakthrough for you, for your family. Maybe it’s financial or maybe it’s longing for God to provide you with a spouse, a home, healing in your body, healing in the hearts of your family.
Whatever it is, I want you to know for certain that God is the provider.
This does not mean that God provides us exactly what we want when we want it. He may not provide anything like what we currently long for.
What I can encourage you with is Deuteronomy 8. Jesus broke through my heart, my fears, and my insecurities with these verses. He shined light in the places I didn’t know darkness, self-sufficiency, pride, and control existed after I lost my job—my primary sense of security.
Deuteronomy is set on the backdrop of the cusp of entering the Promise Land. Moses is speaking to the Israelites, knowing he won’t be joining them as they enter their long-awaited destination. They had spent forty years wandering in the wilderness in what should have been a 3-WEEK direct trip. Moses shares with them that God had perfect purpose in the “wandering.”
Deuteronomy 8:1-5 ESV
The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. [His promise]
And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.
And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Your clothing did not wear out on you and your feet did not swell these forty years.
Know then in your heart that, as man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.
God provides for us. This includes providing lessons and providing discipline. These are the elements we’re not crying out to God for. I did not say “God please provide me an incredible opportunity to grow by stripping me of almost every primary form of security. Please test my heart to reveal what it’s truly anchored in.” (These are what Craig Groeschel calls “bold prayers” if you have the courage to pray them.)
What I want to encourage you is that whether you prayed for the circumstance or not, God IS using this to humble you, test you, discipline you. Not to be a harsh father, but to be the most loving and intentional father. He knows that on the other side of this is abundant life. He knows you need growth and change that will only come through this situation. Whatever it is you are longing for provision in, if God hasn’t given it lavishly yet it’s because he still has something for you in the waiting season, in the uncertainty.
God’s ways are higher (Isaiah 55:8-9). He will either shape our hearts to align with His will for us or He will wait the perfect timing once our hearts are pruned, we are humbled, transformed, and relying solely on Him THEN He will do “immeasurably more than we could ask for or imagine.” (Ephesians 3:20)
The fun part? It rarely looks like the provision we imagine.
My husband loves the quote by Mike Tyson, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
We think we can map our life and what it should look like according to our terms. However, life can punch us in the face.
But the one constant no matter the challenges we face or metaphorical rugs ripped out from under us? Jesus.
He is above all. All hurricanes, diagnoses, stock markets, individuals, opportunities.
So, there I found myself- without a job and all the security and comforts that came with it. As I was eagerly updating my resume, and applying to jobs, an amazing provision from God came just two weeks after being let go- the news that we were pregnant. I was uncertain about my health insurance, interviewing for a job while already pregnant, covering all expenses for myself, and preparing for our baby.
I was humbled in ways I didn’t know I needed to be. I had no idea how much of my worth was anchored in my job title, my perceived “success”, my salary, and my benefits package.
All of those are gifts from God but they are not my identity.
How can we have confidence that we’ll get through whatever uncertainty we’re facing? Moses repeats it multiple times throughout chapter 8—Keep God’s commands. Honor Him. Do not stray from his teachings.
We cannot expect a breakthrough if we are still living life on our terms, by worldly approaches. If you aren’t making any changes in how you pursue God, immerse in His word, discern his will, love and shepherd his people, then you’re stubbornly digging your heels in the ground of the journey God has called you on. You won’t experience His provision if you’re not trusting Him enough to obey His commands.
Jesus says you have the option to choose life or choose death. CHOOSE LIFE. (Deuteronomy 30:19) Claim and declare the beautiful promises of provision Jesus has for us in Deuteronomy 8:6-10:Observe the commands of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and revering him.
For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of streams of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
God doesn’t just promise we’ll enter the land. He promises immense abundance. We have this to hold fast to. We serve a God who is a faithful, promise keeper.
I saw him do this in my life in a way completely different from what I was calling him to do. Instead of providing me a W2 job that offered all the security I thought I needed, he called me deeper into the path of real estate, one of which I’d previously only thought I’d pursue part-time.
He provided and still continues to provide financial provision through clients, exposing areas of strength and opportunity where I can seek His will in my refinement. I am becoming a better wife, friend, mother because of it.
He shaped my heart; he enabled me to live a life free of the limitations I previously experienced and timed it with becoming a mom that brought so much abundant life I remember thinking when I held her in my arms “What is a job? Who cares.” Because in that perfect moment, I realized what I wanted more than anything (a high-paying, prestigious job) was of this world and that by trusting God for his provision, he led me into a path that was far more abundant than the one I was previously longing for.
Now I am not belittling the fact that we need basic provision-financial, health, meaningful relationships, etc. But I do know and believe that when we are walking with the Lord, obeying His commands, and submitting to his will, he does provide.
If you’re not experiencing that yet, I invite you to pursue Jesus even further. Inventory your life and hold yourself accountable to allow His Light to reveal where he is humbling you, testing you, and growing you.
When your heart turns, you will experience the provision God offers in His perfect timing. Whether financial, a spouse, a baby, a unique opportunity, or as in my story, a path so different but so much more abundant than I’d asked for—we must remember it is all from our Father, not our doing.
We cannot waste that challenging yet beautiful walk through the valley and climb up the mountain only to fall back into pride, self-sufficiency, and distance from our Lord.
A good friend, Deanna, once said to me “I sometimes mourn the answering of my prayers because I know I’ll miss the level of deep dependence and intimacy I experienced while relentlessly seeking Jesus and contending for the breakthrough during that season.”
Deuteronomy 8:11; 16-18
But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today.
He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good.
He did all of this so you would never say to yourself “I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.”
Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you the power to be successful.
We may not be clinging to Him as tightly as we once were, but continuing to seek Him, PRAISE Him, and honor Him will continue to reflect glory back to him.
God has promised you the land. A Good land. Streams will flow through your life, your story, your love.
You may be walking through the wilderness right now, but you’re still here. Your clothing did not wear out and your feet did not swell.
God is revealing what is in your heart.
Choose Him. Choose Life.
Close your eyes and complete one big inhale and audible exhale.
Jesus, I rest in your arms. Thank you that it is not all up to me. Thank you for the multitude of things you are doing behind the scenes that I am not aware of. Thank you for the promises you’ve made, for the land of figs and honey, for the way you want to lavishly provide.
God, I thank you for the opportunity to be humbled, to test me and see what is in my heart so that it may go well for me. Thank you for the way you already plan to provide. Jesus, I ask for your help in discerning how you want me to transform in this season, what work you want me to yield to in my heart. God help me discern what new habits, what deepened connection you want for me that will bring more abundant life in you.
Thank you for the wilderness and thank you for the Promise Land. I love you.
Action steps:
Read the 10 commandments (Exodus 20 -given shortly before the timing of Deuteronomy)
Do you have a daily discipline to talk with God? To hear from him by reading His Word? Add this into your day even if just 5 minutes (I recommend Jesus Calling, YouVersion plans)
Are you asking he reveal His Will? Is your heart open to it?
How can you obey his commands and walk in his ways more?
How can you remember the path he’s led you through and continue to proclaim praises?
