By Chris WittsSunday 4 Dec 2022Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
When you read the Bible, especially the New Testament, you come across these wonderful words. Have a listen to these. “My God shall supply all your needs.” And that’s a verse that’s taken from Philippians 4:19. It was Paul the Apostle who said that it’s God’s word that says, “My God shall supply all your needs…”. Now they’re very powerful because that’s a promise that through Jesus, God will supply all your needs.
Now in other parts of the Bible as well. God’s promised to meet our needs, and I’m talking about physical, emotional, spiritual and relational needs. But to believe this to be true, we need to have faith in him. We need to trust him now. Faith is an interesting phenomenon because it’s not something you get by talking about it or hoping it’ll happen. Faith is like a muscle in your body. The more you exercise a muscle, the stronger it gets, and so it’s the same with faith. The more you exercise your faith, the stronger it gets.
So our God helps us develop our faith as we face the pressures of life. And I guess you, like me, have pressures of life in one degree or another. The pressure test asked the question. “How will I handle the stress in my life? Will I depend on myself, or will I turn to God? And in Psalm 50:15 – “When trouble comes, I will save you and you will praise me.”
The Strength Found in our God
So our God says, turn to me in the pressures of every day and I will deliver. You know our problem is that we try everything else to relieve stress before we turn to God. So I’m suggesting that you turn to him first because, as you do, it’s another opportunity to learn to have more faith in him. It grows the prophet, Isaiah said. If you’re walking in darkness without a ray of light, trust in the Lord and rely on your God, that’s a great first to now. There are lots of disappointments with people. People in your life will provide you with opportunities to exercise that faith. And I’m saying that because our plans don’t always turn out the way that we want our marriage, there may be problems there, or the plans that we have can crumble all around us. In fact, life can be very disappointing at times, and we become upset with other people. People don’t always meet our needs. We can sometimes expect our partner to meet all our needs.
And when we do that, we set ourselves up for major disappointment because not one person can possibly meet all our needs, and that’s where the problem is. We say what’s wrong with them? But the problem is not with them. It’s with us because too often we put expectations and other people that can’t possibly be met. So what I’m saying is that the problem is not the other person. It’s you and I and how we respond to that person now. Looking at the Bible again, there’s a really good verse in Isaiah 2 Verse 22 that says you should stop trusting in people to save you because people are only human. Is that a terrific verse? That’s Isaiah 2 verse 22 to have a look at it sometime.
In other words, it says, don’t expect someone else to be the answer to all your problems in life. It’s just not going to happen because there is only one in whom we can place all our trust. Because Jeremiah, 17:7, says Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made him there’s the word have made him their hope and confidence, so people will disappoint you. They’ll let you down. But the Lord’s promises anyone who trusts in me will not be disappointed. That’s Isaiah, 49:23. We have a God that can be trusted at any time, so priorities in life for another thing. Who or what will be first in my life? We all have needs. But you know that God has promised to meet all our needs if we put him first. Uh, it’s easy to say. Oh, yes, God is number one. In my life, we can even wear that slogan on a T shirt. But it’s another thing to make it happen. So let’s be serious about it and allow God to meet our needs, and we will reveal the priority in our life. How small is your strength?
Let’s Pray
And so we pray, Lord, that your strength will be especially ours in those times of need and that we will continue to go forward in your strength. And this is a prayer I ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.