God has already provided everything you truly need—are you ready to see it and be content today?
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada. If you know this favorite hymn, sing along.
(Joni sings:)
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not;
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
Don’t you love that line: “All I have needed Thy hands hath provided.” Wow. It’s as Philippians 4 says, “I’ve learned to be content whatever the circumstance…I’ve learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. God has provided all that I need.” Do you believe that? Are you like that? Are you content in every situation? God thinks you can be, you should be. Do you believe all that you need God has already provided? Do Ifeel like I have all I need? Makes me think, what do I have? Well, I do not have use of my hands; I do not have use of my legs, or sense of touch to feel my husband holding my hand. But I do have a voice; I’ve got a wheelchair to get me around; I’ve got a husband who loves me. And that, according to the Lord, is all I need. For as the hymn says, if there was anything more I needed, he would have given it to me. So, I guess, the real question is, am I using what I have? Am I thankful for it? God never gives you or me a task without supplying the need. His command never comes without his empowering. His calling is always his enabling.
It’s taken me a long, long time to feel content with my paralysis, my pain. But I’m honest enough to know that if I lose more, if my circumstances become more challenging than they already are. If my situation – you know, maybe with cancer, my lungs, I don’t know – becomes worse, I’m honest enough to say, yes, it will be a hard test of my faith. And I have to ask myself, am I prepared to lose what few abilities I have? I’d like to think I’m prepared, that my faith is strong enough, but I don’t know. And I guess I’ll have to wait for that test to come; and it definitely will come as my physical hardships encroach. It will be a litmus test of my contentment. But looking to the future, I pray, I desire to be like Job who said of God, “Though he slay me, I will hope in him.” Job was prepared to remain content in the God of the Bible even to the point of death. And to be honest, when I look at the future, I get scared. I know my health’s not gonna last forever. So, my calling is not only to abandon my future desires, but to trust in God and hand over what I already possess. The secret of contentment is wrapped up in simple gratitude for what God has already provided you and me for right now and for the future. Great is God’s faithfulness. He has supplied all that we need. Believe it today, would you? Because your Lord is really that faithful.
© Joni and Friends