“And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Yeshua the Messiah.”
Philippians 4:19 🤲🏼
Yah is our provider. He is our source. This is a lesson we are given daily, weekly, monthly bc unfortunately we tend to forget this essential truth, and in forgetting we open ourselves up to discouragement, frustration, stress, and offense. When we forget to lean on God for our needs we put pressure on places that are innately weak. We put pressure on ourselves to meet our own needs, but we are weak and we eventually break. We put pressure on our jobs and employers or employees or customers to meet our needs, but ultimately they cannot fulfill our expectations and relationships begin to break down. Someone gets offended and our witness is tarnished. We put pressure on friends and family to meet our needs. They can’t meet our needs, and we get offended and stumble.
All of these places are weak places that are not the sources of provision, rather they are merely tools which Yah chooses to use. God USES jobs. He uses our family and our friends. He DOES want us to be hard working, BUT we are not the source of our provision and neither are other ppl. The pressure we put on ourselves or others is not sustainable. And the stress this pressure causes can strain and even fracture relationships. This stress can hinder the production of the fruit of the Spirit in us as we allow this pressure to build up within us and react in ways that are not Messiah-like. We are called to serve others, but when we are depending on others to provide for our needs we are stunted in being able to serve them and point them to the True Provider of all of our needs. We are unable to sow kindness, longsuffering, mercy, or patience bc we are so stressed out at the lack we which we perceive to be their fault. – “I’m stressed bc I have a lack. And YOU are the reason I have this lack! If YOU would just do ‘X’ my need would be filled and I could be nice to you!” 🙊
In my own life I see situations in which I failed at leaning on Yah to be my provider and I see how it tragically impacted relationships with family, friends, and colleagues. Sometimes the damage was repairable. Sometimes it wasn’t. Thankfully, I can see major growth in this area of my life, and I am able to give testimonies of how I learned to discern the voice of the Spirit when He was cautioning me not to allow my focus to shift. I have begun to see the long term benefits of being more consistent in recognizing God as my source and provider. And I’m thankful not only for the doors He has been able to open for me bc of this, but also the gift of being able to realize why and how this is happening. 🙏🏼 As you enjoy your Sabbath rest, I hope you are able to meditate on this scripture and how you can apply it to your life in a literal way to the glory of the Creator, Provider, and Sustainer of all things. As we pursue living our lives in such a way that we are able to show how we love YHVH with all our heart and soul and strength and that we love our neighbor as ourselves, may the truth of this verse help us recalibrate our focus as we end this week and prepare for the next. Shalom🌿
The Dusty Scholar 