Provision of the Lord

You know, when you read the Bible sometimes it's easy to start feeling pretty good about yourself. You look at the people of the Bible, the first-hand miracles they experienced, and their lack of faith, and you think you're doing a pretty good job.

I mean, think about the disciples. They spent every day with Jesus. They experienced all His miracles first-hand. If there was any group of people that should have had blind faith, it was the disciples. Yet what happened time and again in the New Testament? Jesus constantly asked when they would have that faith. Every challenge that arose led to fear, doubt, and uncertainty. And, again, these are the people that were with Jesus every day.

And what about the Israelites in the desert. God literally parted the sea to allow them to escape, yet they were constantly grumbling and worrying. They actually thought life would have been better in slavery than out in the desert. Yet God consistently provided. He gave them quail and manna; he gave them water; he gave them hope and a future.

We have the complete story of that period of time. It's written in the Bible, and when we know the end, we have trouble understanding their attitude during the journey. And we like to romanticize that we would do things differently.

But would we?

We can see the journey for the Israelites in the desert. We can see the journey for the disciples. We know who Jesus is, and we know why He came for us. It's easy for us to dismiss the doubt of the people at the time because we know how it ends.

But are we so much different. When we encounter obstacles in our own life, we should still know God's promises. We should still know the way He provides. We should know that God will provide for us in the same way He's provided for His people throughout time. But we don't know the end of the story, so we get caught up in the same doubts, fears, and times of uncertainty. The only thing that's changed is the context.

The challenge, as we live our faith and model it to others, is to battle past our human nature. It's natural to worry, to doubt, and to complain. But we know One who is bigger. We know One who provides. We know One who honors His promises. We need to trust that and focus on the future. The ending is written, and even if we can't see it, we can trust that it is good, because that's the God we serve.