As we finish up our look at miracles, we are going to look at miracles of provision, and while God provided for His people in some pretty dramatic ways, and Jesus multiplied a few loaves and fish to feed thousands of people, perhaps the greatest miracle is that God provides for all our needs. In simple and in dramatic ways, God provides for all our needs. The Bible says: God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights. James 1:17
And Jesus told us that we never need to worry about what we need in life because God will provide. Jesus said, Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:25-33
Perhaps the miracle we need to remember is that God will always provide for our needs. We may not get all that we want or desire, but God will provide all that we need. If we need clothes, God will provide. It might not be designer labels but we will be clothed. If we need shelter, God will provide. It may not be the HGTV dream home at the beach or in the mountains, but it will meet our needs. God has even said he would provide us with rest and while it might not be a Disney vacation or a Caribbean cruise, God will give us the rest we need. God will provide.
We also need to remember that God’s provision is not a “get out of jail free card” to cover over our mistakes. If we have gone deep into debt, God will provide but we might have to work and sacrifice to make things right. If we have spent beyond our means and are struggling to make ends meet, God will provide but we might need to take an honest look at our spending and then learn how to reorder our lives. When we walk faithfully with God, God will provide.
When God guides, God always provides. Isaiah said,
The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring. Isaiah 58:11
If we allow God to guide us, and if we walk faithfully in God’s will, God will always meet our needs. This is what Jesus meant when he said, seek first the kingdom of God and then all the things you need will be provided for you. When we allow God to guide us, and when we strive to faithfully follow God’s will, God will meet our needs. Sometimes it happens in routine ways, and sometimes it happens in miraculous ways, but God always provides.
After three years of college I took a break. I had thought about changing schools but that was my foolish plan and not God’s, so it fell apart. I heard God calling me to return to MSU but I wasn’t sure if that was God’s will or my own. The deadline for registering for the spring semester was quickly approaching and I wasn’t sure I even had time to register so I said, God, if this is what you want, you have to get me readmitted. I sent in the paperwork and was readmitted. I then had to get housing and I was pretty specific about where I wanted to live. It was a housing complex I had lived in before and I said again, God, if this is what you want I need to get an apartment in Spartan Village. This was more challenging, but very quickly I heard that I had an apartment. When God guides, God always provides.
We can see God provide for His people in some pretty dramatic ways as He leads them out of slavery and into freedom. It was clearly God’s plan so God provided. God parted the waters of the Red Sea so the people could escape the Egyptian Army. A few days later when they needed food, God provided bread from heaven. A few days later as they complained because they had no water, God made water come forth from a rock. If God guides, God always provides,
God intervened in some pretty dramatic ways to provide for His people during their 40 year journey, but other miracles of provision just seemed to happen. For example, the clothes the people wore during their journey never wore out. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have any clothes that have lasted 40 years. That was a miracle of provision that the people may not have even noticed. It also said that their feet didn’t swell or blister. They probably didn’t notice that either, but it was a miracle of provision. When God guides, God always provides.
One of the most dramatic miracles of provision we read about in the Old Testament comes from the life of Abraham. Abraham was called by God and told that he would be the father of a great nation, but at the time he had no children. Years and years went by and he still had no children. Abraham and his wife Sarah grew old and still had not had a son and they were about to give up but if God guides, God always provides. Finally Sarah and Abraham have a son, Isaac.
When Issac was a young boy, God wanted to test Abraham’s faith so God told Abraham to take Isaac up to the top of Mt. Moriah, where they would often go and offer a sacrifice to God. and there offer Issac as a sacrifice. It is a disturbing story for us to read today because the thought of offering your child as a sacrifice is unthinkable, but it was a different culture and context, and behind the entire story God had a plan.
So in Genesis 22, Abraham takes Isaac up to the mountain top and he is carrying the wood for the sacrifice but Isaac keeps asking, where is the lamb for the sacrifice? Abraham just keeps saying, God will provide the lamb. After the wood is laid out for the sacrifice, Abraham binds up Isaac and places him on the wood and raises his knife to kill him when an angel of God steps in and says, “Do not lay a hand on the boy, do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. Genesis 22:12-14
While it can be a disturbing story to understand, the lesson is clear: when God guides, God always provides. In fact one of the first names given to God in the Bible is Jehovah Jireh, which means God will provide.
’s name because it is what God does. God provides. In dramatic ways and in simple ways, God provides, and we need to see each instance of God’s provision as a miracle. Every time we have what we need it is a miracle. Sometimes we see the powerful hand of God at work behind it all and sometimes we don’t, but God is faithful and keeps his promise to provide. He is Jehovah Jireh.
When God guides, God always provides, but there are times the miracle of provision goes deeper because what we see is that God multiplies what is given. Miracles of provision often involve God taking what is given to HIm and multiplying it exponentially to meet the need. The most famous story of this kind of miracle was when Jesus was given 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. He multiplied what had been given and fed more than 5,000 people.
In the Old Testament, however, there is another story of God multiplying what is given. During a severe drought when people were dying of starvation, the Prophet Elijah asked a poor widow for some food. She said that all she had was a small jar of grain and a little bit of oil and she was going to make that into a small cake for her and her son and then lay down to die. Elijah told her to first make him a small cake and then make some for her and her son. When she did that, when she made a meal for Elijah, he then said, from now to the end of the drought, your jar of grain and oil will never run out, and they didn’t. When she gave what she had to God, God multiplied it and made it last for weeks.
It’s important to understand that God didn’t need the little boy’s 5 loaves and 2 fish to feed the 5,000 people, and he didn’t need the widow to feed Elijah, God could have done it all by himself. God rained down bread from heaven before, He could have done it again. God didn’t need anyones help providing what was needed, but sometimes God loves multiplying what is given to Him to meet the need. Sometimes God wants us to be part of His miracle.
You might be part of God’s miracle of provision. God can do it by Himself. God doesn’t need our help or our gifts, but God delights in using what we have to offer and making us part of the miracle. When Jesus multiplied the 5 loaves and 2 fish, the actual multiplication didn’t take place in Jesus' hands but the hands of the disciples. Jesus broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples and it says that they then gave the food to the crowds and everyone ate until they were full. The bread was multiplied in the hands of the disciples. They were an active part of the miracle.
Then it says they picked up 12 baskets of leftovers. 12 is a very symbolic number. It tells us that God can provide for all of His people, the entire 12 tribes of Israel, but there were also 12 disciples and so each one got to pick up a basket of bread. Each one was not only part of the multiplication but they saw with their own eyes the abundance of God’s provision. Holding those baskets told them that they can be part of God’s miracles of provision.
There is no greater feeling than being part of God’s miracle of provision. In 2017, Faith Church was part of a miracle of provision. We heard how the UM pastors in Sierra Leone were not going to get paid because of a lack of funding. God told us that we could do something to help and I thought that we might step into the gap and provide some help. I never believed that God would do a miracle of provision and raise up $30,000 to cover the needs of all the UM pastors in Sierra Leone. Think about it, churches and pastors on the other side of the globe were praying for God to provide and God did a miracle by moving in the hearts and lives of people right here and He multiplied what we gave and met their needs.
And then there was our Vacation Bible School a few years ago when children and families and many of you donated blankets to send to Belize. God multiplied what we gave and just a few weeks ago over 1,000 blankets were given away. Every person in 2 villages in Belize got a blanket and while you might not think a fleece blanket is needed there, it is during the rainy season.
And just this past Christmas, God used you to help make sure no one will go hungry in our community as over $22,500 was given by you to our local food bank. God delights in using His people to do a miracle of provision and there is no better feeling than knowing that our gifts are being multiplied and used by God to provide a miracle in someone else's life. As we have seen, sometimes God moves in dramatic ways like our giving to Sierra Leone or the food bank, but sometimes God does miracles as we just give what we have faithfully to God each and every week.
Your faithful tithes and offerings provide miracles every day. Children come to know the love of Jesus because of what you give. Children today will be encouraged to read God’s word daily during Lent and that can lead to miracles of provision as God strengthens the faith of children and families. Your faithful giving has allowed us to expand our mission and ministry through our online presence in worship and small groups.
Your giving supports work in our community through the Orphan Care Alliance and Habitat for Humanity. Your giving has helped our mission team rebuild homes and hearts and lives on mission trips, and your giving will continue to be an encouragement here at home through the tool box ministry. Someone is going to pray for a need at their home and together God will use us to meet that need.
God does miracles of provision every day by taking what we give Him and using it for His purpose and His glory. When we give to God, God not only multiples and uses what we give, but God also provides for us. That’s the blessing that comes to us when we give. When we give, God meets all of our needs. And the more we give, the more God will do miracles of provision in our lives to meet all our needs. In Malachi 3:10-12 God says,
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.
I love this, the more we give to God, the more miracles of provision God will do. He will bless us and he will in turn multiply the gifts and bless others. Please understand that I’m not just talking about money. I’m talking about God providing a sense of meaning and purpose. As we give, God provides us with a stronger faith, and healthier families. As we give we find ourselves part of something BIG as God uses us to do miracles in the world. Every time we give we are part of God’s miracle of provision and every time we give we are saying, God we trust you to do that miracle of provision in our lives. We can be a daily part of God’s miracle of provision by simply giving what we have and then trusting God to meet all our needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Next Steps
When Pigs Fly - Miracles of Provision
As the creator of the world and father of all humankind, God has promised to provide for all our needs.
Read Philippians 4:19, James 1:17, Matthew 6:25-33
1. When God guides, God always provides.
● Where do we see this principle at work in the Bible?
○ Israel in the Wilderness. See Exodus 14-16.
● When have you seen this principle at work in your life?
● How have you seen God provide for you in routine ways? Dramatic and miraculous ways?
● Why did Abraham call God Jehovah Jireh? See Genesis 22:1-19
2. God multiplies what is given.
● What do we learn about God’s miracles of provision from Elijah and the widow? See 1 Kings 17:7-16
● What do we learn about God’s miracles of provision from Jesus feeding the 5,00? See Matthew 14:13-21
● When have you seen God multiply what has been given?
3. You can be part of God’s miracle of provision!
● What miracles of provision have you seen God’s people provide?
● When have you been part of God’s miracles?
● How can your giving today bring about God’s miracle tomorrow?
For reflection:
1. What miracle of provision do you need in your life today? How can you trust God for it?
2. What miracle of provision is needed in our world and how can you help make it happen?
