Are you looking for God’s provision? Yes, we all are. We all want to know that God is with us and that He has a plan for our lives. That’s where His provision comes in. It’s not always easy to see, but it’s there nonetheless. I’m going to share with you the Biblical context for God’s provision and what it means. Next we’ll get into three-key ways to experience God’s provision 24/7. These aren’t theoretical or out-of-reach ideas. They’re things that are available to each and every one of us right now, if we just open our hearts and let Him in. Watch this video now or keep reading for more on experiencing God’s provision.
Recognizing God’s Provision
So I want to talk a little bit about God’s provision, because God always has His presence and His provision for our journey. The problem is we don’t always see it. The problem is we can get caught up with focusing on man, or focusing on the circumstance, that we miss it. We can be so consumed with where I want to be, the land flowing with milk and honey, the promised land. I want to be there.
I’ve been waiting for an answer to this prayer. I don’t want to be here. Whatever those things may be. As I’m pining for what I’m longing to see, I’m missing the provision that’s right in front of me. It’s really interesting because you look at the journey of Israel in the desert for 40 years wandering, but in the desert was where the miracles happened.
That’s where manna came from heaven. There was a pillar of fire by night, a pillar of smoke by day, their clothes didn’t wear out their shoes didn’t wear out. There was miraculous provision. The provision when they get into the promised land is going to look different and it needs to be different. The things that serve them in the desert, aren’t going to serve them in the promised land.
So how do we recognize and receive God’s provisions? We’re going to talk a little bit about that. Would you pray with me? Father God, I thank You that You are here. I thank You for Your presence. I thank you for every son and daughter in this place that you see, that you know, that you love.
Father, I thank you that you are present and you have everything we need wherever we are at with You right now. So Lord, in this time, would You give us eyes to see You and ears to hear You? Would You remove distraction in this place, take authority over anything that would hinder, distract, or counter Your voice, your purposes and your presence here. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
If we’re in that place of kind of pining for what’s next it can be a frustrating place. It could be a fearful place. You know, we all want a clean, clear, predictable path, right? I mean who doesn’t? But we live in a broken world with broken people and we are part of that. We are broken too.
We make good choices and bad choices. Sometimes we’re paralyzed and can’t make a choice. There are things we do, things that we don’t do, there’s things that are done to us, and sometimes things that are not done for us, that can all frame our perspective.
That can cause fear, that can upend what we were hoping for, and what we were thinking. “I’m going to live this abundant life with Jesus.” And now all of a sudden, the rug has been ripped out from under me, and I don’t understand.
I think of the last couple years. I think about the high school kids when COVID hit, who were seniors and they were working towards college, and their parents had invested, and they put so much hard work in, and it was just all over in an instant. Some of you in this room may have been dealing with that firsthand.
I think of people hurt by the church, who are coming into a place that they feel like should be safe and loving, and they find it isn’t because there’s other broken people in the room. We can experience things that are hurtful. We could lose a job, have health challenges, deal with loss.
We heard Juliana and Lisa Crater’s stories a couple of weeks ago about the loss of their children, which I can’t even fathom walking through. When we’re in that place of loss, or things that we don’t understand, there’s a lot of temptation there. There can be temptation to blame, “Whose fault is this? If that wouldn’t have happened, I wouldn’t be here. If she wouldn’t have said that I wouldn’t be here.”
Or the blame turns inward, “Oh my gosh, what did I do wrong?” Maybe I have kids who are struggling, who are battling anxiety and depression or not walking with Jesus, and I’m just like, “What happened? How did we get here? What did I do?” And all of a sudden the enemy starts coming in and accusing, right? I can build resentment. I can build bitterness.
Fear and anxiety can start controlling how I think and how I respond. I can get angry. And all of that makes me tighten my grip and try to control. When I’m doing that, I can’t see, recognize, or receive God’s provision in the middle.
God’s Provision in Redemption
You know the verse Romans 8:28? “That all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose.” That’s a great verse until you’re going through something and someone doesn’t know what to say and they try to comfort you with, “Oh, all things work together for good.” And you just want to smack them because you’re like “No, it’s not okay!”
We can hurt each other with provision inadvertently, but there’s something weighty in that verse. I didn’t notice this until I was studying and praying through this. In the beginning of that verse is, “We know that all things work together” and I can tell you in my 40 years there have been times where I’m like, “I don’t know. This does not feel good. There is no way. I don’t see how you can work it for my good. I don’t see how any of this is good.”
And God’s going, “Yeah, you’re right. Some of this is not good, but I’m a Redeemer and I love you.” Nothing to God is wasted, none of it, the good, the bad, the ugly, the excruciating, the glorious. He uses all of it and weaves it and works it together for our good, because He’s loving, because He’s kind, because He has a purpose and a plan and He’s going to meet us wherever we’re at.
He’s going to take whatever’s there. He’s going to “MacGyver it”. He’s going to take it. He’s like, “Okay, I can work with that.” And He’s going to turn it into something beautiful because He’s trustworthy. So I want to take us through Psalm 37: 3 – 4. This is a Psalm that the Lord gave me in the last five years.
My life has been nuts. I could tell you stories. I could write a book. I have incredible testimonies and things that God’s done. It would be both hilarious and heartbreaking and exciting for me to tell you all the stories, but particularly in the last five years have just been hard. I was on staff at a church, and the ministry season was hard. The Lord finally released me, which was awesome.
Coinciding with that release, was my dad’s very rapid dissent with Alzheimer’s. If anybody here knows and experienced that it’s a brutal disease and it’s hard. I never lived with my dad. My parents were alcoholics. My dad was a lounge singer. My mom was a cocktail waitress, no joke. I grew up in bars, throwing back Shirley temples. It’s a whole thing.
Like I said, I could write a book and it would be very entertaining. However, I love my dad and I knew my dad loved me. He lived 45 minutes away, but we didn’t have a lot of relationship. So here I am driving down once a week to spend time with him, to help care for him. In the meantime, my stepmom starts going blind. So there’s that.
I have two daughters going through a lot of things, one battling with anxiety and depression, the other one in ministry school, and then needing radical double jaw surgery. They broke my kids’ face about four months ago. I have a stepdaughter, who we were estranged from that we reconnected with. It was amazing. She moved in with us for six months with our grandson. We had never met before and it was beautiful and it was painful.
Keys to Accessing God’s Provision
And in all of these things, the Lord was inviting me and wooing me and going, “Gina, come here. I have something for you. Will you settle? And will you listen?” So that’s the invitation this morning. So if you have your Bibles open up to Psalm 37: 3 – 4, it’s going to be on the screen.
“Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
So we all probably know the last part, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” That’s the verse you will always find in Hobby Lobby. I actually went onto Etsy and Pinterest, and if you put in Psalm 37:4, all the cool little cute things come up. So we just sit there. “Oh, that sounds so good. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you desires of your heart.”
Here’s the problem, when we pull a verse like that out of context. If I stay only in “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you desires of your heart.” I’m reducing it to a “if” and “then” formula. If I delight, then God’s going to give me what I want. If I delight in Him, then He’s going to meet my needs.
So then suddenly I’m going to go, “I’m delighting. I’m delighting. You’re awesome. I need a job.” Or, “I’m delighting. You’re good. No, really. I delighting in you. Is my kid going to be okay?” And we’ve turned God into a genie in a bottle, and then we set ourselves up for disappointment.
So we need to start in the beginning. We need to back up to the beginning. Trust in the Lord. Just stop right there. Ask the Holy Spirit, “Where am I not trusting you?” and listen. Oh gosh. Ouch. That’s hard.
The Lord was bringing me through this journey, He was asking me the question, “Do you trust me?” And it reminded me of Peter. When Jesus said to him three times, “Do you love me, Peter?” He’s like, “Of course I love you.” “Feed my sheep. Do you love me, Peter?” “You know, I do.” “Then feed my sheep.”
By the third time Peter’s like “I do! What happened? Did I do something to make you think I don’t?” I felt the same way. “Do you trust me? Gina?” “Of course I do. Absolutely I do. I don’t think I’d be alive without you. Yes. I trust you.” “Do you trust me, Gina?” “Yes, I trust you. Of course I trust you. I serve you.” “Gina. Do you trust me? Do you trust me with your kids and their spiritual journey, their physical journey, their safety. Do you trust me?” And I had to go, “Oh…. Yeah?”
So two of our values at Mountain View are “Authenticity with self” and “Intimacy with God.” Here’s where the rubber meets the road. Am I going to be truthful with myself? Am I going to allow myself to be vulnerable in His presence? Because He’s safe. Be honest with myself and Him and go, “You know what? You’re right. I don’t trust you.”
Because here’s the thing, He loves you. We’re on a journey until the day we’re face to face with Him. We’re in a process of transformation, and that transformation is like an onion. We get a certain amount of healing and presence and He’s like, “Okay, we’re going to stay here for a while.”
And then when we’re ready, He’s like, “You know what? There’s a little more, I want to show you. There’s a little more that I want to heal in you. There’s a little more that I want to invite you into.” So can we ask Him these questions? Can we say, “Lord, show me, and then listen, and then respond.”
Key #1: Trust
Because the degree to which I can trust God, who He is, His character, is the degree to which I can receive His presence and His provision. That I can receive the things He has for me, the things He wants to say to me, and the things that He wants to do for me. I just want to say, it’s never just about us.
I’m consumed with what I feel like I need, but the Lord is a master at weaving things together, not just for me, but for those that are around me, for my family, my marriage, my kids, my community, and my place of work. God’s work in me is provision for others as well.
So when I can come into His presence with trust, when I can listen and still myself, the things He forms in me will be provision for the world. We all know Proverbs 3: 5 – 6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Dang it. That’s like the hardest thing for humans, right? I want to understand.
How many times do you say “Well, if God would just tell me, then I’d be good. If I just knew the plan, I could do it.” Right? We want to lean on our own understanding, but here’s the thing, He wants us dependent on him. He wants us to choose to be dependent on Him.
I was here like four or five years ago, Ryan Kirkland, who was the worship pastor invited me to come to a worship gathering that they’re having. He just wanted me to love on his team at the time, and we were at somebody’s house and the daughter of the owner of the home had a baby recently.
And the baby was about five weeks old. The mother was young, like in her early twenties, and her and her friends are in a room and the baby is on an ottoman in the center. And they’re marveling at how helpless the baby is. They’re like, “She can’t do anything. Like I have to feed her. I have to change her, I have to pick her up. I mean, she can’t do anything. She’s like completely dependent on me.”
I was watching that and I’m just like, “We enter this world dependent.” We have no choice in the matter, but the Lord is asking us to choose to be dependent. That just goes against everything in me. It’s so hard for me to actually let go and loosen my grip and trust Him. So would you ask the Lord, “Where am I not trusting you?”
Some deep things might come up and it’s okay. Our family of origin, our parents, our dads who were or weren’t there, trust me, I’ve experienced it. There can be some hard things. I just want to let you know that the restoration ministry here is a significant gift and provision for just that purpose.
There are men and women who love the Lord, who listen to His voice and will help you process with the Holy Spirit those things that came up, so that God can bring healing into those places. I just want to encourage you in that.
Key #2: Dwell
So let’s move on to “Dwell in the land.” Ask the Lord, “What land am I called to dwell in?”
In this five years that I’ve been walking with all of these things going on in my life. I’m from San Diego. My dad lives in San Diego. I wasn’t on staff at a church anymore, I was doing itinerant ministry. Most of our closest friends had moved away and I was honestly done. Like I’m done. I want to leave Orange County. I want to shake the dust off my feet.
My house feels like a trauma trigger. My kids have been through too much here. I just want to go. I want to sell the house. I’m done. I was checking Zillow every day. I was leading worship at a church down in Vista. I just wanted to leave, but my husband didn’t bear witnesses that, he’s like, “I don’t know.” And I’m like, “No, God’s going to do this. He’s going to take care of that.
Trust me. We’re in full-time music and ministry. Like it would take a miracle for us to be able to sell our house and qualify for anything anywhere ever. I was just like, “I want to go. I want to go.” And the Lord was like, “Gina, Will you dwell here? Will you trust me? And dwell here?”
And where you are called to dwell doesn’t have to be a place. It could be a job. It could be your marriage. It could be so many things. Singleness. What is the land that you’re called to dwell in right here right now? I had to answer, I had to go, “Okay.” I had to trust Him.
There’s another verse that we all know Jeremiah 29: 11 “I know the thoughts that I think towards you says the Lord, thoughts of peace, not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” There’s another hobby lobby sign. We love this verse when we’re struggling. But here’s the thing. we don’t know the verses that precede it in the previous two chapters.
Israel is taken captive in Babylon. They are in the enemies territory. They’re oppressed and there’s a false prophet Hananiah, who’s going around saying the Lord’s going to deliver us within two years. He’s going to break the yoke of slavery, He’s going to defeat King Nebuchadnezzar. And the Lord says to Jeremiah, “No, Go tell my people. I’m not going to deliver them right now.”
They are there because it’s consequences to their own actions, and He could deliver them, but He says, “No, you’re going to stay for 70 years.” But here’s the thing. I want you to build houses. I want you to plant vineyards. I want you to get married. I want you to have kids. I want your kids to get married. I want you to prosper. I want you to pray for the land and as you prosper, the land will prosper, for I know the plans that I have for you says, Lord.”
Going back to “It’s never just about us.” Right? Their presence in that place was going to bring peace, prosperity, and the demonstration of the God of the universe, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to a land of foreigners. The Lord is asking me, “Gina, are you willing to Dwell here?” And here’s the thing too, that dwelling is active, it’s not passive.
It’s not “I’m going to hunker myself down and wait until it goes.” And then “Oh good! We’ve survived that.” No, no, no. It’s active. It’s obedience. It’s planting. For me it was reclaiming my home spiritually, practically. It was choosing contentment. It was repentance. Choose to dwell.
And I don’t know what that means for you. That’s between you and the Lord. Do the work with Him and ask Him and notice the provision that He has for you in that place. Cease striving and be present with Him.
Feed on His faithfulness. Ask the question: How’s God been faithful to you?
In the Old Testament, God constantly is telling His people to build Altars of remembrance. Why? Because we forget. He parts the Red Sea, they go through it. They are living in miracle upon miracle. And a week later they’re like, “We’re dying!” God’s having to go, “Hey, I’m still here. I love you.”
We need to build altars of remembrance. And that’s a discipline, it’s a practice, it’s waking up in the morning and saying, “Lord, you are faithful.” Recount how He has been faithful to you. You’re sitting here. You have relationship with Him. How has He provided? How has He met you? How has He spoken? How has He provided for your children? Feed on his faithfulness.
Key #3: Delight
So now we get to… “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” So now it’s different, because now I’ve dealt with my trust issues, and I’m choosing to dwell where He has me, rather than distract myself, or pine for something else. I’m feeding on His faithfulness. I’m reminding myself of who He is, His character, who He says I am.
Now, my delight has turned into a response. Now I’m not just trying to conjure something up in my own strengths and ignore things that I haven’t dealt with and just kind of get through it. I’m actually responding to the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Alpha, the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Lover of my soul, the one who knows the number of hairs on my head.
Now I’m responding to His voice and what He’s saying. Those desires that don’t align with my good and His glory start to fall away. The desires that He’s placed in me start to grow and start to flourish. I just want to say, I think sometimes we look at that and go. “Oh great. I’m going to give up on my hopes and dreams, and God’s going to give me these super spiritual things.” Like it just seems a little lofty.
You know what? God is a good God in a good mood, like Taylor said. He loves you and He loves to dream with his kids. He delights in you. The things that you love, the way He made you. He made you that way, and so partnering with Him to dream? You think that your dreams are amazing now? Well, wait until you dream with God. It’s powerful.
Now He’s not a genie in a bottle. Now He’s a good father. It’s interesting, because that word “delight” in Hebrew means “pliable, soft, and delicate.” So now that I’m in this place of trust, I’m in this place of obedience and surrender where He’s placed me now I’m feeding on His faithfulness and I start to respond to Him. Now He’s forming me. Now He’s shaping me. Now He’s growing me into his image.
And what’s the fruit of that? The fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, all are His provision. So my provision in the last five years, just to go back to my story, like I said, my relationship with my parents was one fraught with a lot of things. It’s another message for another time, but my relationship with my dad, who I love dearly, and I know he loves me, but he didn’t know how to be a dad.
He knew how to sing, he knew how to buy presents, but he didn’t know how to be a dad. As I started driving down week after week, taking him to lunch to get him out of the house so my stepmom could do work when she could still see, I started having a relationship with my dad, even in the middle of his scrambled eggs brain, even the middle of his Dory-like “Where are we going?”
I would respond, “Post office dad.” He would say, “Awesome. So where should we go now?” “We’re going to the post office dad.” “Great, and where are we going?” “We’re going to the post office dad.” But even in the middle of that, I got to experience a dad for the first time at almost 50 years old.
When my stepmom went blind, she was a hard one. I mean, I love her, but she grew up in a hard, not very relational home, with a lot of expectation, a lot of appearance, a lot of criticism. I started to build relationship with her. I started to be able to receive the gift of who she was and she started to be able to receive a relationship that she’d never experienced before.
She learned what it was like to be loved and not for anything she did or money she spent, but just for being her. It’s not just about me. Right? The Lord provided contentment for me, supernatural peace in the midst of chaos, He provided practically with provision for my dad’s care. He provided Mountain View and relationships here, a community that I hadn’t had in a really long time.
Overcoming Road-Blocks to God’s Provision
The Lord provided that here. Provision is powerful. The provision that God has is powerful and significant when we can recognize it. Am I still waiting for things? Absolutely. Are there still prayers that I’m praying and hoping for? Is there still things and areas in my life where fear can creep in and the accuser can come in and go “Did God really say?”
He has one trick in the book, to sow doubt, he’s a liar. In the garden when he came to Eve, he didn’t tempt them to sin, all he did was tempt them to doubt. “Did God really say that? Is He really good?” Their doubt led them to take the fruit. Can we choose to still ourselves? To trust that He’s good, and come before Him?
Psalm 37:7 says “Rest in the Lord ,and wait patiently on Him.” Cease striving, quit white knuckling it, lose pride, even if you have to do it one finger at a time. It’s okay, and here’s the thing, you’re so loved. There’s so much grace. If the invitation is for you to come here and all you can do is come here. Jesus is like, “Okay, I can work with that. I’ll meet you here.”
Todd did a great message on good Friday with the chairs. We go there. and God’s like, “Okay, I’ll come here.You want to go over there? Okay, I’ll come over there.” That’s His love, that’s His pursuit. I want to give you a resource, I have a guided scripture meditation called Dwell on this verse and it’s just a way to sit and meditate on God’s word in His presence. (Dwell is a guided Biblical meditation tool, click here to listen for free.)
“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to You.” How do we get His Word in us so it becomes a part of our DNA? Not just a part of what we know, but a part of who we are. We’re going to start a series next week called “Made for more.” We’re made for more. All of us.
There’s always more with the Lord. Like I said, I’ve been walking with Jesus for 40 years. He’s like, “Gina, I have more for you. Deeper trust, deeper surrender. I have more provision. Will you trust me?” Let’s pray.
Well, Father, You are good. You are good. And in Jesus name right now, I just pray for every son and daughter in this room that knows you, that loves you. If there’s anything that is getting in the way of the truth that you’re good, would you just expose that? Would you silence it? Would you remove those high things that have exalted themselves above the knowledge of You?
Would we see and hear your still-small-voice inviting us into Your presence? Inviting us to trust you, inviting us to dwell, inviting us to remember the things that you’ve said, the things that you’ve done. Inviting us into delight, both our delight in you and your delight in us as your kids. And we ask this in Your name. Amen.
Check out the Dwell Meditations
Check out Made For More Than Salvation
