by Christine Stahl
Philippians 4:19 – “And my God shall supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
Sometimes we can take this verse out of context and use it as a blank check we can cash in any time we are in need. It has sometimes been taken to apply to everyone, everywhere – it is not that. Half the world goes to bed hungry every night. This is not a promise that God is going to meet ALL the time, EVERY need, of EVERY human life. And yet, Philippians 4:19 is still a promise for the children ofGod which we can lean upon.
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Notice the SOURCE of the supply: my God. Not just God will supply but God known in personal experience. This is a family matter.
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Notice the LIMITS of the supply: all your needs. It doesn’t say, all your wants. Our wants are sometimes far beyond our needs.
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Notice the METHOD of supply: it is according to his riches in glory in ChristJesus. The weakest saint holds in his hands all that the greatest saint ever had. We have Christ, and in having Christ have everything!
Ann Voskamp writes, “Sometimes the thing you never would choose for your life, chooses you for a reason. Sometimes the thing you’d never pick, picks you to become brave. Sometimes, you get what you need by walking through what you never wanted. The thing you never wanted, may turn out to be the thing you need the most.”
Foster care. Adoption. Loving kids from hard places. The path is not an easy one, in fact it is really hard. We do not choose the trauma our kids have to overcome. We do not pick the brokenness, the diagnosis, the 504s and IEPs, the therapies & counseling sessions. For many, the decision to bring these children into our homes, into our families is simply because our eyes have been opened to a need and we believe we can make a difference.
That said, our own efforts to love our children are often not enough, seldom are enough…to heal them, to make them whole. WE are not enough but God is, and He has promised to provide. While His abilities are in no way limited, the hard part of this promise is that sometimes He chooses to give us not what we want, but rather what we need. What we need to draw closer to Him. What we need to be a witness of His love to others. What we need in order to rest more fully in grace, daily grace. The Lord will provide, will always provide what we need. He is Yahweh-Jireh.
Questions to think about:
1. What gift from God have you most appreciated as you have walked thru the journey of adoption/FosterCare/CrisisCare?
2. In what way[s] has God ‘surprised’ you with His provision, meeting a need above what you imagined He could/would do?
