God will supply every need

August 23, 2021

Dear Friends,

Imagine that you’re at the eye doctor for a checkup – things have been a little blurry lately. The optometrist tests your vision and discovers that your eyesight has gotten poorer. Sure enough, you need something to correct your vision. So, the doctor writes you a prescription. You’re about to head over to pick out some glasses when you read what doctor has written. The prescription isn’t for glasses. The doctor has prescribed a toothbrush, toothpaste, some dental floss, and mouthwash.

It’s a ridiculous example. You didn’t need anything for your teeth – it’s your eyes. If you go to the eye doctor, you come home with a prescription for glasses. That’s what you need, and that’s what you’d get.

Jesus uses a similarly ridiculous example to talk about his heavenly Father. He says, “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:11-13).

Here’s the key: God give us what we need. He always gives us what is good.

Just as it’d be ridiculous to think that an optometrist would give you something for your teeth, and it’d be ridiculous to imagine a father who would give his son a serpent or a scorpion instead of food, even more it is ridiculous to think that God would give us anything that is harmful for us or anything that we do not need.

This becomes difficult for us when what we get from God is painful or seems to contradict his promises. He has said that we should not worry about what we will eat, but what if there’s no rain and nothing will grow? He has said that we should not worry about what we will wear, but what if you lose your job and the bills are mounting up? He has said that whoever believes in him will never die, but what about when you’re lying on your death bed breathing your last?

The Bible is the story of God keeping his promises. Moreover, it’s the story of God keeping his promises even when it appears that he cannot or will not. The chief goal of God’s work in your life is to teach you to trust in him, even when the devil, the world, and your own flesh tell you lies, even when your senses tell you that he can’t possibly come through for you, even when you’re staring death and the grave in the eye.

That’s why our lives as Christians revolve around the cross of Jesus and his body and blood given and shed for you. It’s there that God overcame every obstacle to your life and salvation, starting with your own grievous sins and not stopping until death and hell had been defeated.

Don’t expect to be able to trust in God if you’re not hearing his Word. Don’t expect to remain faithful if you’re not listening to him and being fed by him. Quite to the contrary, if you neglect God’s Word and Sacrament, you should expect to fall away when the going gets tough.

But if you listen to the voice of your Shepherd, you will hear his constant assurance. If you listen to his call, repenting and believing, you will be strengthened in faith by his Holy Spirit. If you eat and drink his body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins, you will learn that he certainly does supply your every need. He always gives you what is good.

God bless and keep you,

Pr. Buchs

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