It never ceases to amaze me how faithful God is in providing for all of my needs in amazing ways. I could tell you story after story of how I have seen God use the most unlikely of circumstances or people to give me exactly what I needed exactly when I needed it. And often times it’s really more than I need or even know what to do with. I can think of at least 5 examples off the top of my head right now, and those have all happened within the past month — there are dozens more I can think of over my years.
To be honest, sometimes I really enjoy being poor and not having money (although I recognize I’m really only poor in America’s eyes, I’m really not poor at all). It’s such a blessing to see God take care of me every single time. If I had more money then I would have missed out on so many pictures of God’s grace as he provides for me in ways I didn’t expect. People who have all their needs met (and more!) really miss out and I think they are often the ones at a disadvantage.
By God’s grace, I really don’t care much about money, and he’s teaching me to be even more open handed with what possessions I do have (honestly, the two things I find hard to be open-handed with are my books and my music). I owe much of that to my parents and my family, who gave me an excellent example in financial matters and steering clear of materialism. And really, being poor and frugal is actually a bunch of fun — I can tell you from experience. But the best perk is that you get to see the provision of God constantly and sometimes daily.
I share this because right now I hold in my hand a bill from the University of Michigan Hospital. The cost of my surgery, the 17 day hospital stay, and all the tests I had while there comes out to be $72,616. I’m not sure I’ve even made that much money my entire life. I wouldn’t know how to come up with that much money on my own if I wanted to. But it’s absolutely no sweat for my Father in heaven. When I read the bill from the hospital my first thought was: “that’s a lot of money!” and my second thought was: “praise the Lord!”
If I read along the middle of the bill it shows these visits and amounts:
08/17/09 — $1,969.00
08/26/09 — $871.30
10/28/09 — $1,293.00
01/13/10 — $405.00
01/18/10 – 02/03/10 — $72,616.00 (Total: $77,154.30)
But if I read alone the rightmost side of the bill under “Patient Amount” it shows:
08/17/09 — $0.00
08/26/09 — $0.00
10/28/09 — $0.00
01/13/10 — $0.00
01/18/10 – 02/03/10 — $0.00 (Total: $0.00)
That is provision! And that is just the last couple of visits. The charity care that I am on has covered tons of other procedures that I had done before that totaled somewhere around $30,000. It’s so amazing to see God provide for me in that way! What a Father he is indeed! His arm is not too short at all.
George MacDonald says: