Some time ago, Steve said something quite profound about provision. At the time I was expressing my feelings about earning or not earning our financial resources. Personally, I have had (and, still have, really) a hard time expecting money to come in if I haven’t been doing something to earn it. It’s not that I’m too proud to take ‘charity’ – I happily accept, with genuine thanks, when someone gives us something without our doing or paying anything in exchange. But when it comes to ongoing financial provision, I guess I’ve bought strongly into the idea that we need to “earn a living”. Maybe it is pride, or maybe insecurity – that I’m not ‘worth’ having the money come in if I haven’t done something to ‘earn’ it. At any rate, what Steve said was, essentially, what if the ‘supernatural’ provision is ‘payment’ we are receiving now for hard work we have done previously (or will do in the future) that we didn’t or won’t get paid for, or paid adequately for, at the time we do the work?
Anyone who has ever done ministry work, and even many other service type professions, is well aware that one almost never receives compensation equivalent to what the work is truthfully “worth”. If looked at that way, it is easier – at least for me – to believe that, perhaps, the ‘work’ I feel I should do to ‘earn’ my living has already been done, or will be done in the future, even if I’m receiving the ‘payment’ now. That concept had never occurred to me before.
The other side of the ‘earn’ or ‘deserve’ side of this faulty perception is that we can’t ‘earn’ God’s grace or love anyway, and we certainly don’t ‘deserve’ it, so why should His provision be any different? This struggle of mine just goes to show how subtle and pervasive the enemy’s lies about our worth and the idea of a works based salvation can be.
Perhaps you’d like to pray with me to repent of accepting these lies:
Father God, please forgive me for accepting and placing any truth in the lie that somehow I have to “earn” Your gifts, whether they are gifts of grace, love, or Your provision as a loving Father, the Owner of the cattle on a thousand hills, Creator and Ruler of all things. Forgive me for doubting Your love for me and Your desire to provide the best for me as one of Your most precious children. Work in my mind and heart to replace those lies with Your Truth and set that truth so firmly in place that I can never be moved by the enemy’s lies again in this area. Thank You, Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
In His Service,
Kathy