Jehovah-jireh

Some people (even colleagues in the ministry) have asked, “Why do you stay where you are?” implying a lack of numbers spells failure or less than human expectations demands relocation.  One person not long ago said, “You are wasted on a small country church”.   While such comments may  foster doubts or more pride than there is already there I’d like to think I should stay put until God clearly moves me.  One specific indication through the years to me is that God wants a church like ours in our area which is quite strategic for many reasons and He has always seemed fit to provide what we need to persist.

Just this week I met a woman who told me she was fairly new to our area and has been trying to find a church that as she began to describe sounded a lot like our church.  Amongst other things she longed for, she said she would love to find a small, rural congregation that taught the Bible and allowed her to serve the Lord and had more than just the morning service that most of the more liberal denominational churches have. She wasn’t focused on size or what she could get so much as what she could give.  So I invited her to ours and she said she is looking forward to coming and that she would love to be able to bring others in her new van she had just purchased !!  We have several people in a retirement community we minister to that want to now come and need rides and God provided and assured me in just this one way this week to press ahead with His work here !  Where God may see fit to extract something in your life, He also can fulfill what’s then needed !!

The ancient Hebrews called Him Jehovah-jireh (God provides).  When Isaac wondered about seeing the wood and all things needful for a sacrifice to the Lord with the exception of the appropriate animal for the sacrifice it was his father Abraham that used that term to remind his son that “God will provide Himself an offering” (Gen.22:8).  Jehovah-jireh !!    We all have needs, our church has needs – the people in it and the people God wants to be in it !  Sometimes we wonder, how will things work out?  Well, if we work at them according to His Word, God will most definitely provide !    What a thrill to see it in a church and through a life, the hand of God at work providing for us who are so undeserving yet so loved by Him !!  Don’t fret, follow Him and He will provide !