Will God Really Provide for Me?

What if you were a farmer and God told you not to plant for a year? Like your parents, and their parents before them, your family has always made a living from the soil. You know if you don’t plant, you don’t reap. 

And if you don’t reap, you don’t eat. Your family, your community, even your nation depends on you to grow a crop that will feed them for an entire year. And God says, “Don’t plant.” 

Not, “Don’t plant some of your fields,” or “Don’t plant some of your crops,” but “Don’t plant anything at all.” 

How would you feel? What would you say to God? 

“Don’t plant a crop, Lord? Are you CRAZY? How am I going to feed my family?” 

“Just for a year,” the Lord says. “The land needs a rest, and you do, too 

“A YEAR? If I don’t plant for a year, then it will be TWO years before we harvest again. You know it takes an entire season to grow a crop.” 

“Do it anyway,” the Lord says. “Trust me.” 

Every 50 years, the Lord called the Israelites to a celebratory year of Jubilee. We read about it in Leviticus 25. Among other things, he called for a Sabbath rest for the land. No sowing. No reaping. No farming of any kind. 

Observing this year of Jubilee required the Israelites to believe that God could and would provide for them. Totally and completely. For three years, not just the required one. 

He anticipated their question: “What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?” (v. 20). 

Listen to his response: “Then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years. And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest.” 

Do you hear what God is saying? “Trust me. Obey me. I will take care of you. Because you are faithful and obedient, I’m going to bless you so much that when the time of empty fields comes, you’ll have enough to see you through.” 

Jesus shared the New Testament parallel to this Scripture: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things (everything you truly need) will be given to you” (Mat. 6:33). 

Matthew 6:33 has been the plumb line for every major decision my husband and I have made in our 30 years of marriage. Unfortunately, while we’ve always owned this plumb line, we haven’t always pulled it out of our spiritual toolbox. Some days, we measured our decision with the ruler of common sense. Or the yardstick of fear. Or the tape measure of self-protection. 

Other days, faith and Truth prevailed. We planted our mustard seed of faith, watered it with prayer, and watched to see God sprout a miracle. These have been the days when we’ve harvested some of our grandest faith experiences. 

The anonymous donor who paid my husband’s way through college when he obeyed God’s call to go back. 

The accounting decision that erased our hospital bill when the Lord told us we should have another baby. 

The kind friend who gave us a computer when ours died and we refused to go into debt to buy another. 

The generous church family who donated money when my husband lost his job and we trusted God to provide. 

And, most recently, the generous family who obeyed the Lord’s prompting to give us a financial gift—the day we received the news that our home needed thousands of dollars of repairs after South Carolina’s historic 1,000-year flood. 

We are living proof that when a Christian obeys God, he will provide for them. “Exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we could ever ask or imagine” (Eph. 3:20). 

If God is calling you to obey him, and you can’t make the numbers add up, let me encourage you to step out in faith. Not presumption, mind you, but faith. 

Is God calling you to quit your job and stay home with your children? 
Is God calling you to serve in a ministry that’s way outside your comfort zone? 
Is God calling you to surrender to the mission field? 
Is God calling you to do what’s right at work, even though it may cost you? 
Is God calling you to right a wrong, at great personal expense? 

Pray hard, seek wise counsel, search God’s Word for direction, and count the cost. In the end, if you’re reasonably certain the Lord is calling you to take a step of faith, even when it doesn’t make sense, do it. By doing so, you’ll plant the mustard seeds that will sprout a great faith harvest. 

What about you? What do you sense the Lord is calling you to do that requires a faith step? Or when have you obeyed the Lord and took a faith step that didn’t make sense? What happened? I’d love to hear your story, and I’d love to pray for you. Leave a comment below and join the conversation.

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Obeying God Even When It Costs You Something

Richard* made a faith promise pledge to the building project at his church. He committed to give a certain amount of money every month for two years.

Then the stock market crashed.

Instead of having a comfortable income that allowed him to meet his family’s needs and many of their wants, he now had an income that barely covered the basics. With fifteen months still left of his pledge to the building project, he wondered if he should continue to give.

“You need to look out for your family,” one friend said. Richard knew this was true, but he also knew it wasn’t a question of providing his family’s needs. It was their wants they’d be doing without if he kept his commitment.

“God will understand,” another counseled. “After all, he’s the one who allowed your income to be reduced in the first place.”

But the more he thought about reneging on his promise, the more uncomfortable he became. He thought about the instruction he’d read recently in Numbers 30:2. “When a man makes a vow to the LORD or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said.”

He thought about how good God was, how he had always provided for him and his family, and how he was still providing, even during a difficult economic downturn. He thought about how Jesus had commended the widow for giving out of her poverty, and knew he was far from poor.

One morning, seeking counsel from the Scripture, Richard read the account of King Amaziah in 2 Chronicles 25. Amaziah was gathering an army of fighting men from among the people of Judah. A great military threat loomed on the horizon, and he wanted to be prepared. He wondered if his 300,000 men would be enough to defend the country.

Fearful, he decided to shore up his forces by hiring 100,000 mercenaries from the country of Israel—to the tune of one hundred talents of silver. To put this in perspective, this equals about ten million dollars in today’s economy.

Before the ink had dried on the payroll check, however, the man of God came knocking on the door of his throne room. “Don’t let the army of Israel go with you, King Amaziah,” the prophet said. “God is not with Israel. If you do, God will make you fall before the enemy.” Then he scolded Amaziah for his lack of faith. “Don’t you realize ‘God has power to help and to overthrow’?”

Amaziah was cut to the heart, and rightfully so, for God had always been faithful to him. He’d never given him reason to doubt, and certainly no reason to put his trust in human power rather than in the Lord’s.

But there was still the matter of the ten million dollars.

“What shall we do about the hundred talents which I have given to the troops of Israel?”

And the man of God answered, ‘The Lord is able to give you much more than this.’

“So Amaziah discharged the troops that had come to him from Ephraim, to go back home.” He led his significantly smaller army into battle, and, with the Lord’s help, they conquered their enemy.

When Richard read this account, he knew what the Lord was telling him do.

He called a family meeting, explained the financial circumstances they were facing, and told the children about the commitment he and his wife had made to the Lord. Then he shared with his family how the Lord had spoken to him through his Bible reading.

“It’s going to be challenging for the next 15 months,” he told them. “We’ll have everything we need, but I’m going to have to say no when you ask me for money for extras. God has been so faithful to provide for our family all these years. I know we can trust him.”

And trust him they did. The kids were great, although occasionally they’d whine and complain. Sometimes Richard felt like a terrible father when they’d ask him for money to go out with their friends for pizza and he’d say no.

Eventually his daughter sought babysitting jobs and his son mowed lawns to earn pocket money. They invited friends into their home for games and dinner instead of eating out at a restaurant. They borrowed movies from the library, popped microwave popcorn, and piled up together on the couch. He and his wife brainstormed creative, free date nights. They grew closer together as a family, more creative, and much more resourceful. When they did splurge on a birthday dinner out or a special outing, they no longer took it for granted.

When fifteen months had passed and the day came to write the final pledge check to the church, Richard gathered his family around the table. He told them how proud he was of them. He recounted the many ways God had shown himself faithful over the past year and how they had lacked nothing essential. When he took stock of where they were, compared to a year before, he realized God’s Word to him had been true:

“The Lord is able to give you much more than this.”

Are you afraid to do what’s right because it might cost you something? Are you hesitant to obey what God wants you to do because it involves financial risk? Take the words of the man of God to heart: “The Lord is able to give you much more than this.”

Step out in faith today.

*This is a true story.

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