Guest Post: A God Who Provides by Ben Murray

Ben's in the red.

I met Ben a few years ago as a high school student. Since then it's been a blessing to see him grow into a passionate follower of Jesus, a deep thinking, an articulate writer, and a great middle school small group leader. After youth group one night Ben and I had a conversation about how God provides in life. I asked him to put in writing some of his thoughts. I hope you enjoy it.

~Dave                    

"I have been particularly challenged the past couple of weeks about my belief in God's character. I say that I believe that God provides for His children because He says that He does (Matthew 6). However, when I look at my life I see that my beliefs don't quite match up with my actions concerning God's provision. I have the intellectual knowledge of who God is but I don't seem to be living according to that knowledge. It seems as if all of my knowledge of God's character begins and ends within the confines of the Bible. This knowledge rarely escapes from within the pages of the Bible into everyday life. I would equate this to reading a book about how to build a house. You can read about building a house all you want but until you go outside and apply that knowledge, you haven't built a house. It works the same way with our faith. Until we get off our butts and live what we say we believe, we do not really believe. Belief in anything leads to action. If I believe that there are sharks in the community pool I am most likely not going to swim in that particular pool. If I say that I believe that God provides for His children, then I should live in such a manner.

  The problem is that is that I have grown up in a wealthy family and I can't remember ever lacking anything that I have ever needed. I don't mean that in lightly. I have spent a good bit of time trying to recall any situation in which my parents have not provided me for. Since I never lacked anything, I never really had to trust God to provide for me. This has left me with an anemic view of God's character. Thankfully we have such a great Father who longs for us to see Him as He really is. He reshapes the paradigms of His children until they reflect His true character. It seems as if I am in the midst of such a paradigm transformation.

However, I am still left with a somewhat substantial question. How can God's provision be experienced in the presence of abundant wealth? How can we trust God when we have fashioned our lives so that trust falls no farther than our own shoulders? I am reminded of the situation when Jesus claims that it is harder for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. This passage always has instilled a subtle conviction in my heart. It does this because I know that I am rich and this passage is directed at me. While salvation is definitely obtained by the rich (myself being an example), I wonder if Jesus was referring to some other side of the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven exists both in the present (earth) and in the future (heaven). Perhaps Jesus is saying that wealth prevents many from obtaining salvation but it also prevents many from experiencing the kingdom of heaven in the present. Since I, and most likely everyone else reading this post are wealthy, how do we avoid missing out on the fullness of the kingdom of heaven?

I think the answer is fairly obvious. We must position ourselves so that we rely only upon God and not ourselves or our money. This causes most people to squirm a little. I know that I don't really like the idea of giving up the comforts of wealth but perhaps we are not experiencing the fullness of the kingdom of heaven because we are not willing to live lifestyles open to such a phenomenon. People wonder why it seems like only missionaries get to experience the true character of God. I wonder if their experience of God is related to their lack of wealth. They don't have the luxury of trusting in money because they don't have much. Therefore, they rely on God to provide for them. What happens when people in my position do the same? What happens when we decide to give up our “right” views of God and decide to experience Him first hand? What happens when the Bible is used beyond the confines of the classroom and begins to be lived out in every day life? I'm pretty sure that when these things are done, there is a whole lot more of God in our lives and a whole lot less of us."

Be sure to check out Ben's blog over at "The War Room"