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The Reformation Herald Online Edition

Glorification

Contented
T. Stockler

“My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” This short verse seems simple and straightforward. Yet it is really one of the most difficult verses in the Bible.

Its simplicity is in its comfort. For in these few words, Paul seems to put every part of our life into subjection to God. Whatever we need is ultimately provided by the great, unseen God of the universe. The Being who made me and understands me is promising to provide for me. If my parents provide for me, they are really the servants of God. They provide for my needs on God’s behalf. If I work and get paid, my effort and the money I get in exchange for it are really just the servants of God. God is meeting my needs through my own work. If I negotiate to trade something else with other people to meet my needs or receive gifts, these are all part of a greater truth: God supplies all my needs through a variety of ways. But it is still God behind the scenes who is providing for me. And if I save up and live from my savings in retirement, it is still God who stands behind the work and savings as the One who enables me. Therefore, if I do not see how my needs will be met, I can leave it to God. I can trust God who is ultimately responsible that I have a fulfilled life. He does not give me His blessing without my sweat. I will eat bread, just as Jesus promised Adam and Eve, by the sweat of my brow. But my sweat does not create the bread. God supplies my needs. My hard work is only the result of trusting that God will provide what I need and realizing that He expects my cooperation with Him. This verse assures us that we really can depend on God and never worry.

But evil exists in our world. The evil one does not want us to receive what we need. Satan interferes in God’s economy, and then we have hunger and starvation. We may have our need for food unmet. But food is not the only need that Satan tries to keep away from us.

We were designed to appreciate the beauty of the world around us. From the glory of a sunset to a smile on a face, we have a need to see beauty. And Satan does his best to hide beauty from us by putting the unbeautiful in front of us, or just by preoccupying our mind so that we do not see what is in front of us. Each human has many needs. Whatever one of those needs is not supplied, we are “starving.” And then we begin to have problems with this simple verse.

For example, we may become like Elijah. When he thought he was alone, he felt his need for companionship and human support were unmet. Three years of miracles proved that Elijah’s food, water, and shelter would be available. Elijah didn’t need these things. He was just tired of being alone. He decided the solution was to ask God to let him die. Today, his request seems very foolish. His actions seemed to say: “I am the only one that loves you, God. So please take my life and then you will not have any humans that love you.”

But when you are frustrated and discouraged it is easy to have irrational thoughts and ideas. God had a much better plan. He put Elisha next to Elijah, so that Elijah would not feel completely alone. For the rest of his earthly career, Elijah could never say that he was alone. Even when Elijah wanted to be alone, Elisha refused to leave him. God also told Elijah that there were 6,999 other people besides Elisha who loved God, even though Elijah hadn’t seen them yet. Those that submitted to God might have been a minority, but they certainly existed.

There were other Bible characters that felt their needs were neglected. Hagar, the servant of Sarah, thought she was going to die. After Abraham sent her away, she did not know where to find water to keep herself and her son alive. She set Ishmael down under a bush to die of thirst and went far enough away that she wouldn’t have to see it happen. God Himself spoke to her, encouraged her, and then provided water for her.

These two individuals seemed to have their needs unmet. God seemed to not be there for either of them. But God came through for them after requiring them to be patient.

Technology makes Paul’s statement in Philippians 4:19 even more difficult. We can now see pictures of people starving to death in other places. We often do not know why they are starving. But we see pictures that convince us that evil exists right now, and it is killing our brothers and sisters. Somehow we sense that the blood in their arteries is red, and the emotion in their heart is as sensitive as it is in our own. We feel the injustice shown in the pictures of starving people and know that these shriveled human beings did not have their needs met.

Injustice is not only in third-world countries. In the land of the plentiful, most people have plenty of food and water and shelter. We think we have all we need. But sin will not let us have all our needs met. You cannot have sin and complete satisfaction together for very long. In the land of the luxurious, it is often the social and emotional needs of people that are unfulfilled.

We need a spouse, a lover, an intimate companion. We need them to appreciate us for who we are. We need them to touch us. We need them to value us. We need them to share our secrets and our concerns, to surprise us, to admire us, and to comfort us. We need all of these, because God created these needs in us.

We need other friends who can encourage us and hold us accountable for our actions at the same time. We need to feel accomplishment. We need to feel like we are contributing worthwhile products and services to those who appreciate them. We need to see and enjoy beauty and variety and contentment.

The majority of us never find many of these needs met. Some of us can never find a spouse that seems to be compatible. We are always searching but never finding. Some of us find ourselves attracted to the wrong people. We start friendships we know will never fulfill us, just because the person meets a few of our needs. Maybe they look good but are unkind. We are so desperate we will settle for less than the best, just to get something. Some of us find a life partner and marry, only to have a miserable marriage. Sometimes our spouse abandons us or worse. Some of us have happy marriages until our spouse dies young. Few of us have a long, happy, fulfilling marriage that provides for all our needs. Our bodies may be much better off than those starving elsewhere, but our heart and our soul are withered and broken just the same. The vultures may not sit behind us ready for when we fall, yet we are emotionally vulnerable and injured.

The same is true of our other invisible needs. Many times we work for years, only to be laid off because a machine makes our job unnecessary. Or perhaps, family and friends are ungrateful. We may not find our need to be appreciated is met. Almost every person that God created has some need which is unmet in this world of sin.

This is just as the devil wants it. For people who have their needs unmet are a lot easier to tempt. When we are looking for appreciation, it is a lot easier for us to be deceived with superficial appreciation. Just as when we are very hungry for food, it is a lot easier to be convinced to eat unhealthy food. The more the devil can lead us to be unfulfilled, the more chance he has of getting us to accept sin. So he relentlessly attacks anything that is healthy to destroy it. If there is a happy marriage, he will try to introduce misunderstanding and use that to ruin happiness. If there is another young person who could be a good candidate for a spouse, he will show you all the faults that he can find in that person. Whatever he can do, he will do to make you vulnerable to temptation. The Bible says that Satan is “the accuser of [the] brethren” (Revelation 12:10), and Jesus identifies him as “a murderer from the begining, . . . a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44).

For those of us who are not getting our needs met, the Bible makes an important request. It demands us to be patient. Quality matters infinitely. Do not settle for what is ultimately wrong and unsatisfying, just to get a little satisfaction immediately.

“Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord” (Psalm 27:14).

“The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord” (Lamentations 3:25, 26).

“Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass” (Psalm 37:3–5).

It is in these verses we find ourselves at war with God. We want to guarantee that our needs will be met. We focus and obsess on our needs being met. Having our needs met becomes our idol, controlling and consuming our life. It controls our attitude, our desires, and how we spend our time. It takes over our life and fills the place meant for God.

This obsession with having our needs met, the Bible calls lust. Too often, we make lust our god. For we give up any hope that God will supply our needs. Our obsession with getting enough money becomes more important than our own family. It becomes more important than listening to God and trusting Him. We become like Esau of old, so desperate for a meal of lentils that we throw away our birthright just to survive right now.

Our addiction to meeting our own needs without trusting God is our great fault today. For it drives us to have no time for God, no patience for the family and friends that need us, and no interest in making ourselves well-rounded persons. We are slaves to our lusts. For slavery is the condition of every person born in our world who is not reborn as a child of God.

The Israelites demonstrated this slavery to lust centuries ago in the desert. They did not trust God to supply their own needs. Instead they cried out in fear and desperation every time they could not see sufficient food and water next to them. The cloud at night was not enough for them to trust. The voice from Sinai was not enough. The cloud during the day was not enough. Thousands of Israelites refused to be content unless they could find nothing around to complain about.

Contentment is no different today than it was three thousand years ago. It does not come from our circumstances. It does not come from what we can see. It comes from the One we cannot see. It comes from expecting that God will really supply all my needs. It comes from trusting Him when we are under a bush, as Hagar was, and do not know where the next drop of water will come from. It comes from sitting in the cave and trusting God to find us friends the same way he fed Elijah for three years of draught. It comes from knowing that the same God who met the needs of humans throughout six thousand years of humanity’s past will not let us down at the last moment of this world’s history.

We may not find ourselves comfortable all the way. He may give us strength to smile as the fire burns us to ashes. He did that for many martyrs before us. He may save us in the fire like He did Daniel’s friends. He may save us from hunger by manna in the desert and ravens in the draught. Or He may give us strength to trust Him as we die of starvation in prison. He did it for others before us.

God will not supply all our comfort in this world. He will not satisfy our lusts. He will supply our needs. Trusting Him is the greatest experience in life. It is freedom from all lust. It is contentment. Let us trust God whatever the cost.