If we truly believe that God is over all, then it must follow that He is the engineer of our needs as well. We will often think of Him as the Provider but seldom as the One Who has created the need to show Himself as Provider. Grasping the truth that my needs are not dangers or risks but rather introductions to Him and to His faithfulness turns me from fear and uncertainty to excitement and joyful anticipation.
He is not only the Provider of the provisions required to meet the need but also the Provider of the need to require the provisions which He is able and ready and willing to deliver. And why all this? To teach me about Him and His ways, to reveal Himself in me, to set my feet on solid rock, to demonstrate His faithfulness, power and love.
What will be next?
How can I be sure?
How can these things be?
We spend what we have
Of what we had
But not of what we have.
Yesterday provides to the hour
But tomorrow too has its needs,
And yesterday’s provision
Will be no more
When tomorrow arrives
To demand its share.
And if today
There is nothing given
I will have no yesterday
To meet the need of the hour
When that hour comes.
From where do our needs come?
Do they not arise
From Reality?
Then they must be met by the same.
By the same
They will be met.
And because all things proceed
From the Master of all,
Therefore provision meets the need
As the sun dispels the darkness
And happiness the gloom.
Why should I doubt?
Why should I fear,
Knowing the power,
The wisdom,
The love
And the ways of my Keeper?
My needs are His,
His provision mine.
As the waters break open in spring,
As the sun rises at dawn,
So the time of my provision draws near.
Only the time causes us to question
His faithfulness,
And it does so
Only if we know it
Better than the Keeper Himself.
Yet even Time many times
Has proven Him faithful.
So I will wait,
With suspense and great expectancy,
To see how He will show Himself faithful
And rest in patience and hope
As the farmer who has sown his grain
And, seeing nothing in the field,
Fastens his eyes to the sky,
Knowing he is powerless
To do,
To hasten the day.
He has taken what was left
Of yesterday’s bounty
From today
And placed it in the basket
Of tomorrow.
But only He who is the same
Yesterday, today and forever
Can cross the bounds of time
On our behalf.
The question is:
Have I planted for tomorrow?
God knows.
The harvest will testify
Whether I have labored or not,
And how well.
It is in His hands.
But even now I have
What is my need:
A knowledge of His ways,
A faith to carry me
In this hour of uncertainty
So that it gives way
To assurance.
We see the shoots break ground,
The green against the black.
Sure promise makes its way
To announce glad tidings
Of greater things to come.
We are here;
We have been here before.
We may be here once more,
Or many times.
But always we have seen
The vehicle
To bring us here again
As He has promised.
Therefore,
I believe.
Lethbridge, Sept. 30, 1984