In stewarding my roles as a husband and a father, as well as a career artist, one of the primary anxieties I am often prone to is that of providing for my family. Sure – we have provision in this season; and despite seasons of tightening our belts a bit, we’ve never truly faced desperate, monetary need. And yet, I find myself, on a pretty regular basis, worrying about the future. What happens after grad school? What happens when – God-willing – more kids are added to our merry band and Sandra moves to part-time work or perhaps full-time, stay-at-home mommyhood? What if I can’t provide? What if the provision that the Lord has consistently made for us suddenly dries up and the opportunities that have been presented to us one after the other suddenly stop coming?
Last night, right before we went to sleep, Sandra and I prayed together, and to be honest it was pretty much my standard formula for a before-bed prayer. I thanked God for giving us a good day, for bringing us all home safely from our various endeavors; I asked Him to give us a good night’s rest and to help Evelyn to sleep through the night, and I thanked Him for providing for all of our needs. After an “amen” and a final “goodnight,” I rolled over to go to sleep. Suddenly, out of the blue, my mind went to the Lord’s Prayer, specifically the phrase, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Then I heard Holy Spirit clear as a bell. “You know, the reason Jesus told you to ask for your daily bread was so that you’d be able to stop worrying about it.” While perhaps not the most profound of revelations, it suddenly blew my mind with a series of implications that I knew in my head, but hadn’t rung true in my heart.
God doesn’t need to be informed of my needs (“Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt. 6:8), but he wants me to come to Him with them anyway. Philippians 4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” Let every request be made known to God. How? With thanksgiving. Why? So you can let it go. Look at the promises of God. Look at his character. Has he not promised to give us all we need? (Psalm 37:25, Matt 6:30-32; 2 Peter 1:3) Has he not guaranteed both his sovereignty (“Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases.” Psalm 115:3) and his love? (“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” Romans 8:32) What better state to be in than to be, through Christ, in good standing with the all-powerful, all-loving ruler of the universe? And that is the true treasure. Has God promised to provide for all that we need? Yes. How? By giving us himself. Do we still need to pay the rent and put food on the table? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, God is after our hearts. He can send the rain or withhold it. But will we recognize that in either case, He is our Source? That He is still worthy of praise? Money and stuff isn’t going to last. The testimony of how we steward every season the Lord ordains is what will last. True freedom from anxiety comes in knowing that if our treasure is found in Christ, no matter what happens, we are provided for in the ways that actually matter. Then we can “know how to be brought low, and [we can] know how to abound… [We] can do all things through Christ who strengthens [us]” (Phil. 4:13). (Which, in contrast to the implication of a variety of Christian memorabilia, that verse is about contentment, not playing football or pole vaulting)