By Chris WittsSaturday 12 Sep 2015Morning Devotions with Chris WittsDevotionsReading Time: 3 minutes
When you read the Bible, especially the New Testament, you come across these words “My God shall supply all your needs”. That’s taken from Philippians 4:19. Think about it – they are powerful words, and a promise that through Jesus, God will supply all your needs. In other parts of the Bible as well, God has promised to meet our needs –physical, emotional, spiritual, and our relational needs. But to believe this to be true, we need to have faith in Him, and learn to trust Him. Faith is an interesting phenomenon, isn’t it? It’s not something you get by talking about it …or hoping it will happen. Faith is more like a muscle. The more you exercise a muscle, the stronger it gets. The more you exercise your faith, the stronger it gets.
God helps us develop our faith as we face the pressures of life. The pressure test asks the question “How will I handle stress in my life? Will I depend on myself or to turn to God?” Psalm 50:15 is God speaking through the writer. “Call to me when trouble comes; I will save you, and you will praise me”. Our God says, “Turn to me in the pressures of each day, and I will deliver you”. Our problem is we try everything else to relieve our stress before we turn to Him. Let’s turn first to Him, because as we do it’s another opportunity to learn how to have faith in Him. The prophet Isaiah said “If you’re walking in darkness without a ray of light, trust in the Lord, and rely on your God”.
Then there are the disappointments with people. People in your life will provide you with lots of opportunities to exercise your faith. Our plans don’t always turn out the best, or our marriage may not be very happy, and our plans can crumble around us. In fact, life can be disappointing a lot of the time. And we become upset with other people, who do not meet our needs. We sometimes expect our partner to meet all our needs, and we set ourselves up for major disappointment. No one person can possibly meet all our needs, and when there’s a problem we say “what’s wrong with them?”. But the problem is not them, but us. Too often we put expectations on other people they can’t possible meet. The problem is not the other person – it’s how you and I respond to that person. There’s a really good verse in Isaiah 2:22 that says “You should stop trusting in people to save you because people are only human”. Don’t expect someone else to be the answer to all your problems in life. It’s not going to happen. There is only One in whom you can place all your trust, no matter what. Jeremiah 17:7 says “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made Him their hope and confidence”. People will disappoint you and let you down. But Isaiah 49:23 has the Lord’s promise – “Anyone who trusts in Me will not be disappointed”. God can be trusted at all times and will never let you down.
What about life’s priorities? We should ask ourselves “who or what will be first in my life?”. We have legitimate needs, and God has promised to meet all our needs if we put Him first in every aspect of life. It’s easy to say “God is number one in my life” and even wear a t-shirt with those words. But it’s another thing to make it happen. What amount of time do you give Him? Is most of your time spent exclusively in self-serving endeavours, or do you give time to the Lord and His work? The answer reveals the priority in your life. Even how you use your money is an indication of priorities. Some people give hardly any money at all to church or charitable organisations to help others.