God will provide...

This week's memory verse:
"Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage." -- Psalm 84:5

My grandmother used to say, "The Lord will provide." I have heard others say this too. And, looking back in my life, I can see many times when my needs were met, and I believe the Lord was the one who knew what I needed at that moment.

We THINK we know what we need. We work and plan and pray and work some more to make those things happen. When they don't happen, we feel cheated and feel like God isn't listening to our prayers. But...God really knows what we NEED, and he finds ways to make THOSE things happen for us.

Yesterday, I talked about Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth. The story continues in Ruth Chapter 2. Ruth stayed with Naomi and they went back to Naomi's home town. Because they had no husbands to care for them, they were poor and hungry. Ruth went to the wheat fields to glean. 

It was one of God's laws that farmers were not to harvest their fields on the very edges and they were to leave some grain behind as they harvested so the poor and the foreigners could glean, or pick up those leavings and survive. 

Ruth went to a field owned by a relative of Naomi's dead husband, Boaz. He had heard of the good thing that Ruth did for Naomi by not leaving her alone, and he wanted to reward her. So he not only allowed her to glean from his fields, but he protected her and gave her food as well. This was the beginnings of even better things for Ruth, for in later chapters, we find that Boaz marries Ruth, and they have a son who became part of the lineage of Jesus.

God provided Naomi with a friend who stayed with her...he provided them with food and other physical needs. God also provided another husband for Ruth so her physical and emotional needs would be met as well. I am sure there were times along that journey that both Naomi and Ruth felt desperate and afraid. But ultimately, God's love took care of them. 

"God will provide."  "He will make a way when there seems to be no way."  These are not just sayings of wise grandmothers...they are true. God has charted YOUR journey with just as much care as he did for Naomi and Ruth. When you are desperate and afraid about your situation...have faith that God will provide...he will take care of you. Things may not turn out the way YOU planned...but know that God has amazing things planned for you that are even better than what you planned. After all...he's God!