Break Free from Financial Bondage: Trusting God’s Promises for Provision

But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19 KJV).

Too often in life we allow finances to dictate God’s will for us.

We think, “I’d really love to start my own business, but I can’t. I’m broke.” “If I just had the money I would do what God is telling me to do.” But where God guides, He provides. Remember when Israel was suffering from drought under King Ahab? God told Elijah to “Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there” (1 Kings 17:3-4 KJV). And God sustained Elijah there for “some time.”

Can you imagine getting food from large, black birds squawking at you as they fly by and drinking from a creek so that you didn’t die of thirst after proclaiming the word of the Lord to a wicked king? It may seem outrageous, but God always provides where He guides—maybe not first-class accommodations, but He always meets your needs. God had already commanded the ravens to provide before Elijah received the word to go. God’s word is full of examples of His miraculous provision, as well as promises to provide for His people.

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? (Matthew 6:25-26 KJV).

We are of much higher value to the Lord than the birds of the air. Yet He feeds them. So why do we doubt His care of us? “Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:32-33 KJV). Seeking God’s Kingdom and His righteousness includes seeking His guidance in our lives. Now we can’t heap things up on our own lusts, but when our hearts are set on seeking Him, God adds all the necessary things, like food and clothing, to our lives (see James 4:3; 1 Timothy 5:8). And He often provides far more than what we need. So don’t sweat the small stuff. (Yes, God says provision is small stuff.) God will provide.

Getting back to Elijah, there are several lessons we can learn from his walk with the Lord, particularly as it relates to provision. First, God always provides in the way He sees fit. There are no guarantees what a particular provision will look like, how it will manifest, or even how God will get them to us. In Elijah’s case, God sent him meat (who knows if it was dead or alive) on the wings of unclean animals (see Leviticus 11:15). Yes, you read that right. Ravens were considered unclean in the Old Testament. They were (and still are) scavengers. When ravens aren’t feasting on carcasses, they eat frogs, insects, and mice. No self-respecting Jew would eat what a raven ate. But God doesn’t always package His provision the way you think He should. He provides as He sees fit.

Elijah, being a good Jew with the faith of Abraham in his heart, obviously loved God more than any religious concepts of clean and unclean. So when God sent him the meat via ravens, he accepted it. He heeded the voice of God and received provision with a thankful heart (even though it was probably “roadkill”). And when the brook dried up, Elijah knew change was coming. I’m sure he was eagerly awaiting his next instruction from God when the Lord told him to go to Zarephath (see 1 Kings 17:9). In Elijah’s obedience, his lack of provision pointed to coming change. But this is not always the case. If we experience a lack of provisions because of disobedience, our response should be repentance, not an expectation of God’s continued provision. When it was time for Elijah to move on, the Lord spoke to him saying, “Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee” (1 Kings 17:9 KJV).

So Elijah packed his bags and set off in search of his next meal ticket. When he got there, Elijah found the widow woman just as the Lord promised. She was gathering sticks. Elijah called, “Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink…bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand” (1 Kings 17:10-11 KJV). But the woman did not have anything to share with Elijah. “I have not a cake,” she said, “but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die” (1 Kings 17:12 KJV).

I am sure that was not the response Elijah was expecting. But perhaps by this time he had learned not to discount God’s provision in whatever form it took. Because he said to her:

Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days (1 Kings 17:13-15 KJV).

Remember, God had already spoken to Elijah and told him a widow would be the vehicle for His provision. God had also spoken to this widow (see 1 Kings 17:9). Elijah was not taking advantage of her. He knew that if she obeyed the voice of the Lord and gave her last morsel of food as an act of faith, God would bless her in return—good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over (see Luke 6:38). God used that act of faith to not only provide for Elijah but also the woman and her household until the famine ceased.

Imagine this. You, a prophet of God, speak a word telling a king that because he has rejected the Lord there will be a severe drought in the land. Your word comes true, and all around you the land dries up. People begin to suffer. You feel the pressure of less food too, and obey the word of the Lord to go to a secret place of provision where the king cannot harm you. Day after day you experience God’s miraculous provision there, but after a time you notice the place you thought God set aside as a reward for your obedience is drying up. What do you do? Do you rail at God for not fulfilling His word? (How could He love you and let this happen? You were obeying Him!) Do you question your ability to hear His voice? (Surely if you were where God called you to be you wouldn’t be experiencing this circumstance.) Do you refuse to leave? (Bless God, this is where He told me to go. I’m not leaving! God doesn’t change His mind.) Or do you recognize that God’s provision is always ahead of you.

Think about that. When God told Elijah to go to the Brook Cherith, He said, “I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there” (1 Kings 17:4 KJV). Before God told Elijah to go, He had already put roadkill on the menu and provided a delivery service. When God told Elijah to go to Zarephath He said, “I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee” (1 Kings 17:9 KJV). Notice the past tense of both of these verses. God sent provision ahead of Elijah. He did the same thing for Abraham.

When God told Abraham to go to the land of Moriah and offer his son as a sacrifice, Abraham chose to obey, even though Isaac was a gift from God, his promised son (see Genesis 22:1-3). Then, when Isaac asked his father why they were going to worship without a sacrifice (Isaac didn’t know he was the required sacrifice), Abraham said, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering” (Genesis 22:8 KJV).

Once the altar was complete, Abraham laid his son on it and stretched forth his hand to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him, “Abraham! Do not harm the lad. For I see that you fear God above all” (Genesis 22:11-12, my paraphrase). Abraham listened to the progressive guidance of God and suddenly saw a ram that had been caught in a thicket (see Genesis 22:13). Abraham’s confession that God would provide His own sacrifice was proven true. God did provide a ram in place of Abraham’s son, and thousands of years later, He provided another sacrifice—His only Son—the lamb of God who took away the sins of the world. The provisions were ahead of faith-obedience.