Why does God provide for your every need?
Imagine a family of four: a man and his wife and son, age 5, and daughter, age 7. The man has a well-paying job, and his wife stays home to give full-time childcare. The man is an affectionate father who hugs his children and tells them how much he loves them every morning when he leaves the house and every evening when he returns. All is well for this family until the man decides he wants more money to spend on travel, golf, and expensive dining at a private club.
He decides that the way to get the money he wants is to gamble. He begins going regularly to casinos, gambling more and more, winning now and then, but losing far more than he gains. Soon he spends his savings and begins going into debt to try to make up his losses with a big win.
He still has a family. Every morning when he leaves the house and every evening when he returns, he hugs and kisses his children and tells them how much he loves them. But one day he tells his wife that they can no longer afford to buy clothes and toys for the children. A few weeks later he tells her to get a part-time job to pay for groceries because he can no longer afford to provide food for the family. He tells her that the kids are old enough to take care of themselves for a few hours a day while she is at work.
Every morning when he leaves the house and every evening when he returns, he hugs and kisses the kids and tells them how much he loves them.
No, we would say, he doesn’t love his children. No father who truly loved his children would fail to provide for them like this. Loving fathers provide the fundamental needs of their dependents.
Jesus, on daily bread
Jesus based his teaching about money and the meeting of our daily needs on this principle. God is our Father, we are his dependents. Loving fathers, good fathers, provide for the fundamental needs of their children. For this reason, Jesus taught that we don’t have to worry about the provision of our daily necessities.
In his main teaching on this subject, notice in verses 26 and 32 below that Jesus bases his assurances about the full provision of our needs on the caring Fatherhood of God:
“24 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. 25 Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:24–34, ESV)
Ultimate responsibility for daily bread
Neglect and love are incompatible.
Your Father in heaven loves you, and you can be sure he is a good Father who takes his responsibility seriously. He has no limitations. He is fully able to provide for you. Therefore he does not expect you to live as if the ultimate responsibility for meeting your needs rested on your shoulders, as if there were no God ruling the world. No, Jesus taught that your heavenly Father is fully aware of your needs and that you are valuable to him as his child. He takes ultimate responsibility for meeting your needs.
Of course, as a good Father he is raising mature children who learn to work hard and be responsible—but we are never to think we have ultimate responsibility for provision. We are not God. Only he rules the affairs of this world. So our responsibility is to work and to manage our money well.
But, Jesus taught, in verse 33, we are not to fear like those who don’t know God, not to live for money like those who don’t know God, not to live unrighteously like those who don’t know God, and not to make the kingdom of God anything lower than first priority like those who don’t know God. If we will “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness…all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). Why? Because God is your father, he is good, and he loves you. Those who walk in his ways enjoy his full provision.
Our way and God’s way
Our way: Fallen people live as though God is not their provider, as though money, job, career, job skills, a corporation, the economy, or a boss were their ultimate provider. These are the secondary sources of our provision, but the ultimate source is God the Father.
God’s way: As a loving, caring Father, the Lord gives infinite attention to faithfully providing everything we truly need. God uses secondary sources to provide, but secondary sources only work because he makes them work. (See James 1:17; Psalm 104:10-32; Romans 11:36)
Life principle: The key to enjoying your Father’s faithful provision for every real need is to live by the rules of his house: to seek first his kingdom, that is, his rule in every aspect of your life, and to seek first his righteousness, that is, his commands for how to live in the way that pleases him. Surrender control of your life to God, and obey his commandments, and you will never lack for your true essentials.
