“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?” Mt. 6:25-27……………..
“…For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.” Mt. 6:8………………
“Why don’t you take all of this fruit, too?” the woman whispered to me as the man teaching the Bible study pressed on with his teaching at the front of the room. She had come quietly over to where I sat around a big circular table. “I’m leaving early, so I thought I’d tell you now. Please take it. I saw you taking some of the other fruit.”
She was right. I had filled up a big cup with fresh fruit one of several people had brought in for the fellowship food time before the Sunday morning class had started. I hadn’t eaten along with everyone else but noticed there would be plenty of leftovers and thought I would take a little bit back to the hotel with me. This kind woman was offering for me to take a big abundant container packed with fresh fruit with me instead of her taking the leftovers of what she evidently had brought to the class home with her. What a blessing! I LOVE fresh fruit, but don’t buy too much of it myself because of the cost and my trying to keep my spending to a minimum given the budget I’m on and my desire to be available to the maximum to the Lord and the work to which He has called me. Yes, this was a blessing, but this wasn’t all.
A few minutes later, the woman quietly worked her way across the room and came back to my table. Whispering again.
“It’s not much, but I believe the Lord told me to give you this money,” she said. She squeezed some money into my hand. I thanked her profusely, we chatted briefly, and off she went. Leaving me with a blessing beyond measure. But it wasn’t about the fruit, not really. Nor was it about the money, not really. Nor even about the kindness of a woman I barely knew. No, this is what it was about.
Just that very morning, and in a span of a few days, I had been wondering about asking people if they would be willing to step forward and offer financial support for me and my ministry work as I was getting ready to embark on the next big step in my life’s calling – beginning preparations to pack up everything, dogs included, and head to New York City to bring the message of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Should I ask? Shouldn’t I? Over and again, I had sensed the Lord simply telling me to trust Him for His provision. And that at that point anyway, there was no need to ask. He wasn’t leading me to do so.
The fruit lady wasn’t simply bearing fruit and finances, was she? Not in the least! The Lord had sent her as a messenger. Reminding me that He knows what I need before I even ask Him, that He is my provider, that He will continue to equip me to do the ministry work to which He has called me, that I only need to ask others for help when He leads me to do so, and whether I do according to His will, or whether I don’t according to His will, every single blessing right down to the cantaloupe, watermelon, and pennies is ALL from Him regardless of how and through whom and when He chooses to provide and deliver. All for His glory, yes!
Is your trust for your provision IN THE LORD?! Let it be! May it be! Yes!