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God provides perfectly for His will.

He provides for His perfect plan. He provides for His purpose for all creation. He provides for Himself within us.

Have we gotten confused? Did we think God was out to promote any other way? If so, we are likely wondering if God really does answer prayer. Perhaps we have come to believe that God is distant and biased. Maybe we have even begun to doubt that He is good.

God provides perfectly for the “eternal us”. He provides a way for salvation to wrestle its way in and work itself out.

Has God provided for me? If I jump into an eternal frame of mind (as best I can), I can imagine what God might provide in order for me to know Him, or to envision a reality with and without Him. I begin to see in my own life what God has given so that I might be changed and refined into someone who edifies, and is edified by, the Kingdom of God. Here are some of the provisions that come to mind:

He gives me a venue where I can learn to be hardworking, disciplined and persistent.

He has placed within me a seed of Himself—a desire, a need, for purpose and value and completeness.

He has given me an experiential understanding of joy, love, freedom and life.

He provides for my humility.

He has given me reason to exercise the muscles of obedience.

He has revealed to me that we are fallible, fragile, and finite.

He let me have an understanding of disease and decay.

He brought me to a place where I opted to give up my own plan for myself.

He has taught me the importance of choosing well.

He forgives me, every time.

He provided hope in my suffering.

He gives me a place to experience relationship.

He gives me space to want Him.

He gives me air to breathe, a mind to reason, and senses to feel.

He gave me the desire for my life to matter.

He put in me a yearning for Truth.

He gives me a sense of my relative smallness.

He gives me time and ways to practice the eternal occupation.

He lets me experience what He is like by giving me the chance to be responsible for others.

He lets me experience the true state of all creation by providing me seasons of neediness.

If I look straight at Him and nothing else, I can have peace and courage.

He continues to carve out space for the unexplainable, and room for awe.

He gives me rest and I occasionally take Him up on it.

My newest most prized gift is the gift of remorse for time spent without Him. (Many will note: I am often remorseful).

He is my help, my guide, and encouragement as we navigate through fear, loneliness, darkness, injustice, uncertainty…

He is committed to me, He knows me, He will give me give me everything in His Kingdom just so we can be one.

He will provide for my death.

He is constantly offering me the opportunity to trust.

He paints for me everywhere, the illustration of evolution and transformation.

All around me, He creates the narration of restoration.

Have you ever experienced a grace that lightens you, an empathy that softens you, or a hospitality that restores? Have you ever received a kindness that compels, or seen beauty that inspires? Have you ever gotten to laugh your way into a better perspective?

These are the things which illuminate and nourish eternal life within us. These are the good gifts of the Father, who loves us. He grieves as we are weighed down by the stones of our frantic insecurities, and everything else that He has already overcome. He longs for us to know Him and to choose Him, and so He gives Himself constantly, even while we reject Him, or refuse to see Him, because He is gracious and infinitely generous.

Were we hoping instead that God would pave the way to a less promising destination? Have we suppressed our huge need into something that might be satisfied with a personal success instead of The Creator of the Universe?

Without thought or worry or even my own acknowledgement of Him, I can see that God provides abundantly for my true life. His provisions are everywhere, in everything. In fact, I’m not sure if I need to worry about anything at all except maybe for the inclination to resist Him, or to hold out for a presumably better plan.