How About This Promise?

     There was a time, when I was a kid, that my parents would ask me, "What do you want for Christmas?"  now, that was quite a question just after the Sears toy catalog had arrived after Thanksgiving.  I would usually respond with my list of things that I had wanted that particular year.  Parents may ask the same question to their children as the holidays approach.  I haven't heard too many people ask that question and change the word "want" to "need."  To ask someone, "What do you need?" is a different question.  That, however, brings us to another one of God's great promises.  Philippians 4:19 says, "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."
       The situation with the church at Philippi at that time, was that they had given a lot to provide for the needs of the Apostle Paul as he ministered the gospel.  They had given so much that they came to the point of having physical needs in their own lives that they wondered just how they were going to meet.  This was the point that Paul assured them that God was going to meet all of their needs.  The careful thing to notice is what it does not say.  God used the word "need" instead of "want."   Our list of "wants" can be enormous and it can contain many things that we certainly do not need.  We would consider our "needs" to be the things in this life that we use in order to survive from day to day.  Our needs normally consist of a place to for shelter, clothes to put on and food to eat.  Being the people that we are, the sin of covetousness soon enters in and we come to the conclusion that there are a lot more things on our "need" list that are really just "wants" and that are not necessary for survival.  I have been blessed to live this long which even at this point is longer than I had guessed I would live.  The plain fact however, is that God has never failed to supply all that I have ever needed.  That hasn't stopped my complaining at times, but all of my needs have always been met.  Now there were times when I could not see how God was going to make things come together, but He always did.  That is the point of all of this.  Paul reminded us that "...God shall supply all of my need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."  I also wanted to mention that God always uses the right words to reveal His message.  He supplies all that we need, "according to" and not "out of."   The Scriptures remind us that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills and that He owns all of the gold and silver in the earth.  It is all His.  Every jewel in the universe belongs to Him and He has His ways of getting it to the places where it is needed.  If you wonder how things are going to come together just realize that God has His ways.  It was reported that the missionary to China, Hudson Taylor, once sent a check amounting to $10,000 to George Mueller and his ministry to orphan children in England, because, "He didn't need it at the time and perhaps George did."  So, praise God today that He supplies all of your needs in ways you could never dream up.